Syria Relief Goods

Socioeconomic inequality increased significantly after free market policies were initiated by Hafez al-Assad in his later years, and it accelerated after Bashar al-Assad came to power. With an emphasis on the service sector, these policies benefited a minority of the nation's population, mostly people who had connections with the government, and members of the Sunni merchant class of Damascus and Aleppo. ^[128] In 2010, Syria's nominal GDP per capita was only $2,834, comparable to Sub-Saharan African countries such as Nigeria and far lower than its neighbors such as Lebanon, with an annual growth rate of 3.39%, below most other developing countries. ^[129]

The country also faced particularly high youth unemployment rates.^[130] At the start of the war, discontent against the government was strongest in Syria's poor areas, predominantly among conservative Sunnis. ^[128] These included cities with high poverty rates, such as Daraa and Homs, and the poorer districts of large cities.