Bloomberg reports:

The impact on Damascus, where the war ended a year ago with the defeat of the fighters in towns around it, is staggering.

The city usually throbs with life in the spring, carts overflowing with fresh green almonds, Damascenes smoking shisha in outdoor cafes and families enjoying picnics. It felt lifeless on a visit this month. Vendors in the city’s old bazaar complain of miserable sales. Pubs that bustled with diners were largely empty. Increased power cuts have forced shops to get generators. Traffic is light. Morale is down.

Lines of cars stretching for miles wait hours to fill their tanks with the 20 liters of gasoline that Syrians in government-controlled areas are allowed every five days. The last shipment of oil from Iran, which was sending up to 3 million barrels a month, came in October before sanctions were resumed.

“I thought once the war ended, our currency would become stronger and our living standards better,” said Saeed al-Khaldi, who transports vegetables across the sprawling city. Damascus’s population has almost doubled since the war started, to over 6 million, as civilians fled violence in other regions. “Instead, we’re living from one crisis to the other.” [Continue reading…]