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%