Syria Plans to Print New Currency in UAE & Germany

Syria plans to print a newly designed currency in the UAE and Germany instead of Russia, three sources said, reflecting rapidly improving ties with GCC and Western states as a move to loosen US sanctions, offering Damascus new opportunities.

Syrian authorities began exploring the possibility of printing currency in Germany and the UAE earlier this year, and the efforts gained steam after the European Union eased some of its sanctions on Damascus in February.

Syrian authorities are in advanced talks on a currency-printing deal with UAE-based company Oumolat, which the country's central bank governor and finance minister visited during a trip to the UAE earlier this month, two Syrian financial sources said.

Oumolat did not respond to a request for comment.

Germany

In Germany, state-backed firm Bundesdruckerei and private company Giesecke+Devrient had shown interest, a Syrian source and a European official said, but it was not clear which might print the currency.

A Bundesdruckerei spokesperson said it was not in talks for a currency-printing deal with the Syrian state.

Giesecke+Devrient declined to comment.

The UAE foreign ministry, the German government and Syrian central bank governor Abdelkader Husriyeh did not respond to requests for comment.

Syrian pound notes are in short supply today, though officials and bankers give differing reasons for why this is.

Officials say ordinary citizens and also malign actors are hoarding pounds, while bankers say it is Syrian authorities who are keeping the flow to a trickle, partly to manage the exchange rate.

Banks regularly turn away depositors and businesses when they try to access their savings, piling pressure on an economy already being squeezed by new competition from cheap imports.