Damascus-Sana
The Director of Treasury at the Central Bank of Syria, Iyad Bilal, confirmed that the main objective of offering the new 5,000-Syrian Pound denomination into circulation is to facilitate cash transactions, reduce the trading burdens on citizens, and replace damaged banknotes.
In a statement to SANA delegate, Bilal explained that the introduction of the new 5000 class also contributes to reducing the costs of printing banknotes. Instead of printing several 2000 and 1000 liras, a paper of 5000 and 1000 liras is printed and thus spending is rationalized and directed in other development directions.
As for the positive repercussions hoped for from the introduction of the new cash category, Bilal stressed that the Central Bank continues to face all economic challenges and deal with them cautiously and has specific controls through which it can direct the flow of cash in the markets, explaining that when the 2000 LBP category was introduced, there were fears among citizens of price fluctuations. But what has happened is price stability in the markets.
Bilal stressed that the quantities that will be put into circulation in the 5,000-liras denomination are calculated and precisely defined so that they will be equal and equivalent to the damaged banknotes that will be withdrawn from circulation, and therefore there will be no excess cash supply as a result of replacing the new cash category with the damaged denominations.
Bilal indicated that, as of today, the new cash denomination was distributed to the payroll approvers and banks in exchange for the daily regular withdrawal requests submitted to the central bank, all of which are equivalent to the damaged papers withdrawn from the markets on a daily basis, explaining that the central bank today offered through its branches. The new cash denomination in the governorates of Damascus, Homs, Tartous, Lattakia, Daraa and Sweida, and it will be offered successively in the rest of the governorates.
It is noteworthy that the Central Bank launched the 500-lira category in 1958 for the first time, the 1000-pound category the first edition in 1997 and the 2000-pound denomination in 2017, and currently the 5000-pound category was issued, noting that it was printed about two years ago.
Wasim Al-Adawi
