North Syria towns adopt Turkish lira to buffer cost of living

As the Syrian currency continues to tumble with looming US sanctions to take effect next week, small towns in Northern Syria have adopted the Turkish lira to buffer the cost of living.

The national currency, the Syrian pound (or Syrian lira), has tumbled in recent weeks, reaching a record low to the dollar.

The pound, which traded at 47 pounds to the dollar before the 2011 uprising, plunged to over 3,000 for a dollar this week.

Prices of basic goods have skyrocketed while some staples have disappeared from the market as merchants and the public struggled to keep up with the rising cost of living.

In the Turkish backed city of Marea in Aleppo Province, the local council has ruled for the use of the Turkish lira rather than the Syrian pound.

Small notes of five, 10 and 20 Turkish lira have been circulated in the town's exchange shops and the Posta ve Telgraf Teşkilatı (Turkish Post office) to help stabilise the economy which saw many shops close due to the rising cost of Syrian pound to the U.S. dollar.

The United States will begin imposing a new wave of sanctions on the Syrian government and its allies next week in what Washington says aims to punish Assad and his top lieutenants for crimes his forces committed during the country's nine-year conflict.

The sanctions also aim to prevent anyone around the world from doing business with Syrian officials or state institutions or participate in reconstruction plans.

The implementation of the U.S. Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act is expected to increasingly strangle the country amid the harsh economic crisis.

The currency crash is bringing more Syrians to below poverty level as their purchase power dwindles while some important products such as sugar, rice and medicine are becoming hard to find in markets with prices rising every hour.