More than one in four Syrians 'extremely poor': World Bank

WASHINGTON

More than a quarter of Syrians live in extreme poverty, the World Bank has said, 13 years into a devastating civil war that has battered the economy and impoverished millions.

The World Bank published two new reports on Syria, which found that "27 percent of Syrians - about 5.7 million individuals - live in extreme poverty."

"Extreme poverty, while virtually non-existent before the conflict, affected more than one in four Syrians in 2022" and might have further deteriorated after a deadly earthquake last year, one of the reports said.

The quake killed about 6,000 people in the country.

The report cited neighbor Lebanon's economic meltdown in late 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, as having eroded the welfare of Syrian households in recent years.

"Continued funding shortfalls and limited access to humanitarian assistance" have further strained poor Syrians, already coping with "soaring prices, reduced access to essential services and rising unemployment," the World Bank said.

The international community is set to meet in Brussels today to try and muster funds for Syria at a yearly pledging conference.

A lack of opportunities and dwindling aid has pushed many Syrians to rely on money sent from relatives abroad to survive, with the World Bank estimating that "in 2022, the total value of remittances received by Syrian households reached about $1.05 billion."

Syria's estimated GDP stood at around $6.2 billion in 2023.

Syria's "real GDP is projected to contract by 1.5 percent in 2024, extending the 1.2 percent decline in 2023," the report said.