Annual Budget Under Fire

A prominent Syrian economist criticised the 2009 budget in an interview for the All4Syria webside on December 31.



Munir al-Hamash accused officials of exaggerating the size of the budget deficit in their predictions, a tactic they also used when drafting last year’s budget because they wanted to persuade Syria’s political leaders that there was no alternative to phasing out fuel subsidies.



The budget document contains projections of a 5.3 billion US dollar deficit, 18 per cent higher than last year’s.



All4Syria backs the government but also advocates for reform and reports news not carried by the state news outlets.