Damascus, Sept. 28 (SANA) Syria’s General Secretariat of the Presidency directed public bodies on Monday to cut nonessential spending and review investment projects while protecting wages and essential services, as higher energy and transport costs put pressure on state finances, the finance minister said.
The directive to ministries and other public entities followed a Finance Ministry proposal. It exempts salaries and wages, as well as funding needed for health care, education, water, energy, security, public safety and essential operational and preventive maintenance.
The measures come after Syria reported public expenditure of about $3.7 billion in the first half of 2026 against revenue of about $2.7 billion, leaving a fiscal deficit of roughly $1 billion.
Finance Minister Mohammed Yisr Barnieh said in a Facebook post that current geopolitical and regional developments had increased the costs of energy, transport and basic supplies. The spending measures aim to limit unnecessary expenditure, improve the use of available resources and preserve the state budget’s ability to respond to those pressures, he said.
Under the directive, approved investment projects are to be reassessed according to their necessity, progress, existing commitments and financial, economic and service impacts. Projects supporting essential services, public safety or vital infrastructure, as well as those with economic and financial viability, will receive priority.
Barnieh said projects that could be postponed without substantially affecting services or economic activity might be deferred. He said the measures did not call for indiscriminate cuts or reductions to the funding required for public agencies to perform their core functions.
The Finance Ministry will work with other public bodies to implement the directive and measure the savings achieved, Barnieh said.
R.H/M.F
