Civil war has cost Syrian economy $226bn and torn apart economic structure
Beirut — Syria’s six-year conflict has ravaged its infrastructure and caused losses to its economy of $226bn, according to estimates published by the World Bank on Monday. The devastating war has killed over 320,000 people and displaced more than half the country’s population since it began in March 2011. The World Bank said the destruction ran much deeper than death tolls or infrastructure damage alone could capture. "The war in Syria is tearing apart the social and economic fabric of the country," World Bank vice-president for the Middle East and North Africa Hafez Ghanem said in a statement. "The number of casualties is devastating, but the war is also destroying the institutions and systems that societies need to function, and repairing them will be a greater challenge than rebuilding infrastructure — a challenge that will only grow as the war continues," he said. The World Bank report found that cumulative gross domestic product (GDP) losses since Syria’s conflict erupted "have...
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