São Paulo – Six years of war in Syria led to USD 226 billion in losses, or four times the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2010, before the conflict broke out, according to estimates made public this Monday (10) by the World Bank in the report “The toll of war: the economic and social consequences of the conflict in Syria.”
The institution reports that almost one third of households and roughly half the healthcare facilities had been damaged or destroyed by the beginning of this year, and manufacturing has stopped.
The World Bank said that amid this scenario, the lack of medical attention kills more than the war does, the youth’s education is compromised, and in the first five years of conflict, 538,000 jobs were lost on average per year.
The IBRD says that the economic impact of the war goes beyond material damage. “The war in Syria is tearing apart the social and economic fabric of the country,” said in a statement Hafez Ghanem, World Bank Vice President for the Middle East and North Africa.
“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,” added Ghanem.
Over 400,000 people already died in the conflict, with half the population being forced to leave their homes and near 5 million Syrian fled the country, in which is considered the worst refugee crisis since the World War II.
According to the World Bank, the social and economic impacts of the war will be felt for a long time after the conflict is over.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum and Sérgio Kakitani
