elephone p963o (11) 333052 or 332557, 330416, 332814, 332315

Flag: three equal horizontal bands of red (top), white, and black with two
small green five-pointed stars in a horizontal line centered in the white band;
similar to the flags of the YAR which has one star and Iraq which has three
stars (in a horizontal line centered in the white band)--all green and
five-pointed; also similar to the flag of Egypt which has a symbolic eagle
centered in the white band

- Economy
Overview: Syria's rigidly structured Bathist economy is turning out
roughly the same amount of goods in 1989 as in 1983, when the population
was 20% smaller. Economic difficulties are attributable, in part, to severe
drought in several recent years, costly but unsuccessful attempts to match
Israel's military strength, a falloff in Arab aid, and insufficient foreign
exchange earnings to buy needed inputs for industry and agriculture. Socialist
policy, embodied in a thicket of bureaucratic regulations, in many instances
has driven away or pushed underground the mercantile and entrepreneurial spirit
for which Syrian businessmen have long been famous. Two bright spots: a sizable
number of villagers have benefited from land redistribution, electrification,
and other rural development programs; and a recent find of light crude oil
has enabled Syria to cut back its substantial imports of light crude. A
long-term concern is the additional drain of upstream Euphrates water by
Turkey when its vast dam and irrigation projects are completed toward the end
of the 1990s.

GDP: $18.5 billion, per capita $1,540; real growth rate - 2%
(1989 est.)

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 70% (1989 est.)

Unemployment rate: NA%

Budget: revenues $NA; expenditures $3.2 billion, including capital
expenditures of $1.92 billion (1989)

Exports: $1.3 billion (f.o.b., 1988 est.); commodities--petroleum,
textiles, fruits and vegetables, phosphates;
partners--Italy, Romania, USSR, US, Iran, France

Imports: $1.9 billion (f.o.b., 1988 est.); commodities--petroleum,
machinery, base metals, foodstuffs and beverages;
partners--Iran, FRG, USSR, France, GDR, Libya, US

External debt: $5.3 billion in hard currency (1989 est.)

Industrial production: growth rate NA%

Electricity: 2,867,000 kW capacity; 6,000 million kWh produced,
500 kWh per capita (1989)

Industries: textiles, food processing, beverages, tobacco,
phosphate rock mining, petroleum

Agriculture: accounts for 27