According to the World Gold Council, data from the Syrian Central Bank showed that Syria's gold reserves stood at 25.8 tonnes in June 2011. According to Reuters calculations, that amount of gold is worth $2.2 billion at current market prices.
However, Syria's central bank's foreign exchange reserves are only about $200 million in cash, one source told Reuters. Another source said the dollar reserves were "hundreds of millions".
While not all of the reserves are in cash, the decline is significant compared to pre-war levels, Reuters notes. According to the International Monetary Fund, Syria's central bank reported $14 billion in foreign exchange reserves at the end of 2011. In 2010, the IMF estimated Syria's foreign exchange reserves at $18.5 billion.
Current and former Syrian officials told Reuters that dollar reserves were nearly depleted as President Bashar al-Assad's government spent the money on food, fuel and fighting.
Syria stopped sharing financial information with the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and other international organizations in 2011 when the Syrian civil war broke out.
Syria's new government, controlled by opposition forces, is still taking stock of the country's assets after Mr Assad left for Russia on December 8.
Looters broke into the central bank's offices and took Syrian pounds but did not break into the main vault, Reuters reported.
Syria's reserve vault is bomb-proof and requires three keys, each held by a different person, and has a common code to open it, a source noted.
Syria's cash reserves were inspected by members of the new government last week, two sources said, days after opposition forces seized control of the capital Damascus in a lightning offensive that ended more than 50 years of Assad family rule.
The new Syrian government, led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a former Al Qaeda affiliate, has quickly formed a government and is consolidating control over state institutions.
Syria's central bank headquarters in central Damascus fully reopened on December 15, the first day of the working week in Syria.
