BEIRUT (Reuters) -President Bashar al-Assad has dismissed Syria’s Central Bank Governor Hazem Karfoul, the state news agency reported on Tuesday.
It did not immediately say whether Assad had appointed a replacement or give a reason for Karfoul’s dismissal.
Syria’s economy has been decimated by the country’s decade-long conflict, and it also faces Western sanctions.
Assad removed Imad Khamis as prime minister in June following weeks of economic hardship and a rare outbreak of anti-Assad protests in government-held areas, replacing him with Hussein Arnous.
The Syrian pound has been tumbling, driving up inflation and aggravating the hardship faced by Syrians as they struggle to afford food, power and other basics.
The currency has rebounded somewhat in recent weeks since hitting a low of 4,000 to the U.S. dollar in March after authorities tightened controls on bank withdrawals and internal transfers and restricted movement of cash around the country to stop hoarding of dollars.
Bankers and business people had told Reuters the Central Bank of Syria instructed banks to cap withdrawals at 2 million pounds ($572) from an earlier limit of 15 million pounds and acted to curb movement of cash within provinces to up to 5 million pounds. It also imposed a ceiling of up to one million pounds on transfers within government-held areas to reduce the demand for dollars.
The pound had traded at 47 to the dollar before protests against Assad’s rule erupted in March 2011.
(Reporting by Maha El Dahan and Suleiman al-Khalidi; Editing by Dominic Evans, Alison Williams and Paul Simao)
