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Report: Syrians deposit large fortunes in Lebanon banks

July 12, 2018 at 1:33 pm

The Central Bank of Lebanon [Karan Jain/Flickr]

Official data has revealed that the total monetary deposits by nationals in Syria’s public and private banks reached 2,175 billion Syrian pounds ($4.88 billion) at the end of 2017.

The data showed that total deposits in Syria’s six public banks amounted to 1,380 billion Syrian pounds ($3.1 billion), while customer deposits amounted to 795 billion pounds ($1.8 billion) in private banks.

According to an earlier report by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), by 2015 about $22 billion were migrated to neighbouring countries following the 2011 revolution.

The UN report added that most of the funds – $11 billion – were transferred to Lebanon. Lebanese economic sources recently announced that the total Syrian funds deposited in the country’s banks range from between $15-18 billion.

HRW: Syria refugees under pressure to leave Lebanon

Syria’s Al-Watan recently linked the growth of Lebanon’s foreign reserves from $29 billion to $37 billion to the influx of Syrians funds.

The daily newspaper called on the Syrian government to take measures to encourage citizens to return their money to Syria.