WASHINGTON
The total cost of almost 3-year Syria crisis reached $103.1 billion by the first half of 2013, Alex Pollock, Director for Microfinance Program at United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), has said.
Pollock stated that industrial activities have almost stopped due to devastating effects of Syrian civil war, presenting a report on the socio-economic situation of the country at the New America Foundation.
The total economic cost hit 147 % of Syrian GDP in 2010, while the total amount of public debt corresponds to 73 % of the same figure, according to the report, contributed by United Nations Development Program and Syrian Center for Policy Research. Estimated cost only in the first half of 2013 is 47.9 billion dollars.
The number of unemployed people in Syria is 2.33 million for the first half of 2013, despite the small decrease in unemployment due to short-term jobs in harvest period.
More than half of the population inside Syria on hunger line, and the refugee flow from the country has caused an 8 % decrease in total population.
- Biggest blow on education and health
One of the most negatively affected sector is education, as some 2,994 schools and education schools were destroyed or heavily damaged during the conflict, Pollock said.
Almost 49 % of Syrian students have quitted school, he also said.
The number of deaths of the long term war is more than 100,000, as the number of injured exceeded 400,000.
Rising number of illnesses especially among women and children burdened the health system heavily, Pollock noted.
According to current numbers, a total of 37 went inoperable out of 57 heavily damaged hospitals in the country, he also said.
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