Syrians feel overburdened by hiking food prices

Rising food prices, one of the main outcomes of the Syria crisis, have made it more difficult for the middle- and low-income families to make their ends meet, especially after the government raised the prices of subsidized consumer commodities.
During the three-year-old crisis, food prices have increased threefold, forcing households to ration consumption in daily life.
As the crisis entered its fourth year last March, huge economic losses, unprecedented unemployment numbers and low expectations for a speedy recovery of the devastated economy made the situation worse.
"Everything has got more expensive and the prices are bouncing and still expensive for us, because you know the salaries can't cover our needs for the month," Ahmad Ramez, an elementary school teacher, told Xinhua.
He said he had to find a second job after finishing school in order to earn more money to keep up with the high prices of foodstuffs and almost all other necessities.
"A friend of mine introduced me to a man who owns a taxicab and I agreed to work on the taxi in the evening," he said, adding that he did not feel embarrassed by his second job because he needed the money to pay the expenses of his wife and two kids.
Ramez's story is one of thousands of similar ones as the crisis has wrecked the country's already sluggish economy, plunged its currency and shut down many businesses.
The Western sanctions imposed on Syria have also weighed down the country's export earnings from oil, slashing the central bank's ability to support its currency, which has fallen to a record low against the U.S. dollar -- from 47 Syrian pounds before the crisis to 150 pounds.
The Syrian government has taken many steps to control food prices and make them affordable, but the majority of merchants continue to charge high prices, citing the depreciation of the Syrian currency and the difficulty of importing goods into Syria under EU sanctions.
The ordinary Syrian citizens suffer the most amid the tough economic situation in the country, especially when most businesses have come to a halt due to the precarious security situation and the ongoing battles between the rebels and the government troops.
Recently, the Syrian government has raised the prices of major subsidized consumer commodities, namely, sugar, rice and bread, in an effort to prop up its ailing economy.
The Ministry of Domestic Trade has doubled the prices of white sugar and rice from 25 Syrian pounds (about 0.17 U.S. dollar) to 50 Syrian pounds (about 0.33 dollar) per kg, and the price of subsidized bread bundle has also been raised from 15 Syrian pounds (0.1 dollars) to 25 pounds (about 0.17 dollars).
Syrian Minister of Domestic Trade Samir Qadi Amin told the pro-government al-Watan daily that the cut for bread subsidies saves the country 12.09 billion Syrian pounds (around 80 million U.S. dollars) yearly.
Observers believe bread prices were raised mainly because the depreciation of the Syrian pound against the U.S. dollar increased the burden of subsidy costs.
The minister was quoted by al-Watan as saying that though bread is one of the basic necessities especially for low-income people, the subsidy costs have gone skyrocketing after the increase of exchange rates.
The minister added that although bread prices have gone up, there will still be a "red line," meaning the prices would stay within acceptable ranges.
The government subsidy for commodities such as diesel, patrol, cooking gas, electricity, rice, bread and sugar constitutes about 45 percent of the state budget for 2014.
Ahead of the recent rise of the prices of sugar, bread and rice, the government had raised the prices of diesel, petrol and gas, saving around 150 million pounds (1 million U.S. dollars) on daily basis.
"We used to be happy that the prices of the government-subsidized materials were unchanged, but now we have to think about those stuff also," said Osama Rashed, an engineer, expressing the wish that the crisis would end soon so that "we catch our breath again and restore our lives."
He said two of his brothers have left the country recently because they could not find a job to support their families.
Syria's economic losses during the second quarter of 2013 amounted to 103 billion U.S. dollars, up from 84 billion dollars in the first quarter of the same year, according to a recent report by the UN Development Program.
The United National Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia said 18 million out of the country's 23 million inhabitants are living "below the poverty upper line."