Syria's banks face struggle to survive as turmoil spreads
Unrest in Syria is developing chaos at the country's banks, which posted bumper profits last year as a plunge in Syria's currency boosted foreign exchange gains, but will have big problems this year in the face of rapidly declining deposits and rising bad loans.
Inspite of this, the central bank has encouraged banks to keep up high foreign currency holdings as the country's foreign exchange reserves have depreciated since the political turmoil began.
At this point analysts question how many banks will survive as the uprising and Western sanctions have disabled Syria's economy and triggered capital flight, causing total bank deposits to drop by almost a third since the unrest began.
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