Robert Fisk : It’s his fast-disappearing billions that will worry Assad, not words from Washington - Robert Fisk, Commentators

Robert Fisk : It’s his fast-disappearing billions that will worry Assad, not words from Washington - Robert Fisk, Commentators - The Independent
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-its-his-fastdisappearing-billions-that-will-worry-assad-n

If “strong economic sanctions” mean a mere freeze on petroleum products of Syrian origin, the fact remains that Syria can scarcely produce enough oil for itself, let alone for export. A Swedish government agency recently concluded that Syria was largely unaffected by the world economic crisis – because it didn’t really have an economy.

L’idée qu’un pays de plus de 20 millions d’habitant n’aurait « pas vraiment d’économie » est une simplification qui sent bon le racisme orientaliste.

Dans la version anglaise d’Al-Akhbar aujourd’hui, un article décrit à peu près exactement le contraire :
Syria’s Banks : Boom or Bubble ? | Al Akhbar English
http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/syria’s-banks-boom-or-bubble

In the past decade, the private banking sector in Syria grew visibly. Based on a recent report prepared by UK-based consulting firm Deloitte and obtained by Al-Akhbar, total assets in Syrian banks almost doubled between 2007 and 2010. This expansion was the result of the open-economy policy adopted by the regime at the beginning of the new millennium. But the current uprising across Syria has cast fresh doubts over the country’s financial future.

Intéressante également, la question de la dette :
Economy of Syria - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Syria#Foreign_Debt

Syria has made progress in easing its heavy foreign debt burden through bilateral rescheduling deals with virtually all of its key creditors in Europe.In December 2004, Syria and Poland reached an agreement by which Syria would pay $27 million out of the total $261.7 million debt. In January 2005, Russia and Syria signed a deal that wrote off nearly 80% of Syria’s debt to Russia, approximately €10.5 billion ($13 billion). The agreement left Syria with less than €3 billion (just over $3.6 billion) owed to Moscow. Half of it would be repaid over the next 10 years, while the rest would be paid into Russian accounts in Syrian banks and could be used for Russian investment projects in Syria and for buying Syrian products. This agreement was part of a weapons deal between Russia and Syria. And later that year Syria reached an agreement with Slovakia, and the Czech Republic to settle debt estimated at $1.6 billion. Again Syria was forgiven the bulk of its debt, in exchange for a one time payment of $150 million. Syria has also settled its debt with Iran and the World Bank.

Robert Fisk aurait peut-être plutôt dû supposer que la Syrie n’a pas été très affectée par la crise des dette publiques parce que elle n’a pas réellement de problème de dette :
– dette extérieure :
http://www.indexmundi.com/g/g.aspx?c=sy&v=94&l=fr
– dette publique :
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_de_pays_par_dette_publique