---
title: "Pricing in Syrian pounds when you buy in dollars: a shop owner's guide for 2026"
description: "Most Syrian shops buy stock in US dollars but must show shelf prices in the new Syrian pound. Here is a five-step method for turning a dollar cost into a pound price that protects your margin, rounds to change customers carry, and knows when to reprice."
canonical: "https://sandooq.app/blog/syrian-pound-dollar-pricing-retail"
locale: "en"
updated: "2026-09-30T00:00:00.000Z"
---

# Pricing in Syrian pounds when you buy in dollars: a shop owner's guide for 2026

Most Syrian shops buy stock in US dollars but must show shelf prices in the new Syrian pound. Here is a five-step method for turning a dollar cost into a pound price that protects your margin, rounds to change customers carry, and knows when to reprice.

**Tags:** pricing, syria, currency, operations, retail

Dual-currency pricing is the practice of buying stock in one currency and selling it in another, and it is the everyday reality for most Syrian retailers: supplier invoices arrive in US dollars while the shelf price must be shown in Syrian pounds. Getting it right comes down to three decisions: which rate you convert at, how you round, and when you reprice.

This guide walks through all three for 2026, the first year of the new Syrian pound. It is written for owners of grocery stores, pharmacies, electronics shops and clothing stores who set their own prices and want a method their staff can follow without calling them every morning.

*Updated September 2026. Currency rules change; confirm anything regulatory with the Ministry of Economy and Industry before relying on it.*

## What changed in 2026, and why your price list is still unsettled

On 1 January 2026 the Central Bank of Syria began replacing the old pound with a new one at **100 old pounds to 1 new pound**, so two zeros came off every price. Old and new notes circulated side by side while the exchange ran. The deadline was extended several times, and the old notes **stopped being legal tender on 31 July 2026**. They can still be redeemed at the Central Bank for five years, but no longer at your counter.

By 10 July 2026 the Central Bank governor put the share of old currency already exchanged at roughly **80%**. During the transition, shops were required to show **two prices for every item**, one in old pounds and one in new pounds. That requirement ended with the old notes, but its effects did not:

- **Shelf labels were rewritten in a hurry.** Many shops divided by 100 and kept whatever odd figure came out.
- **Customers lost their price memory.** A shopper who knew a product cost 25,000 old pounds now has to recognise 250 new pounds as the same price, and any rise hidden in the rounding gets noticed.
- **Small change was short.** Markets reported a shortage of the new low-denomination notes in the early months, so prices that needed exact change slowed every queue.

If your price list still carries the leftovers of that hurried rewrite, 2026 is the year to rebuild it properly. The method below is one way to do that.

For the country-level picture (power, connectivity and running two currencies at one till), see our [POS system guide for Syria](/pos-system/syria).

## Pricing in pounds while buying in dollars: the rule you work inside

Dealing in US dollars is no longer treated as the offence it was before 2025, and many suppliers invoice in dollars. The shelf is different. The Ministry of Economy and Industry's inspectors have enforced **pricing in Syrian pounds** on displayed goods: markets in Damascus reported fines in April 2026 for shops that priced in dollars. Ministry decision 767 also requires the **final consumer price** to be written clearly, in Arabic, on each product by its producer or importer.

In practice that splits your pricing into two layers:

| Layer | Currency | Who sees it |
|---|---|---|
| Cost: supplier invoices, landed cost, your margin maths | Usually US dollars | You and your accountant |
| Price: shelf label, receipt total, what the customer pays | Syrian pounds | Every customer and every inspector |

The rest of this guide is about the bridge between those two layers. Build that bridge once, deliberately, rather than recalculating it at the counter.

## A five-step method for setting a pound price from a dollar cost

**1. Pin the cost in dollars, including what it took to get it on the shelf.**
Record the invoice cost per unit in dollars, then add your share of transport and any loss you expect (breakage, expiry). A price built on the invoice alone quietly gives that difference away. Your [purchase orders and goods-received notes](/blog/grocery-pos-supplier-integration-purchase-orders) are where this number should live, not in a notebook.

**2. Choose your conversion rate on purpose, and write it down.**
Decide which rate you convert costs at, and hold every product to it: the Central Bank's published rate, or the rate you actually pay to buy dollars. Many shops add a small buffer on top to cover the days between buying stock and selling it. The mistake is not which rate you choose. It is having a different rate in each staff member's head.

**3. Price on margin, not markup.**
A markup is added to cost; a margin is the share of the selling price you keep. To keep a 25% margin on an item that costs 10 dollars, divide cost by 0.75. The dollar price is 13.33, not the 12.50 that a 25% markup gives you. Then multiply by your rate. The difference between the two methods looks small on one item and is large across a year.

**4. Round to money customers actually carry.**
Round the result up to a figure that the new notes can pay without a hunt for change. In the new pound, psychological price points need to be rebuilt from scratch, because the old ones disappeared with the zeros. Round consistently (for example, always up to the nearest 5 or 10 new pounds for everyday items) so a customer comparing two shelves sees a pattern, not noise.

**5. Set a repricing trigger, not a repricing habit.**
Decide in advance how far your conversion rate must move before you reprice: a fixed percentage, reviewed on a fixed day. Repricing every morning trains customers to expect change and burns staff time on labels. Never repricing means your margin moves every time the rate does. A written trigger sits between the two.

> Talk to us about your store's setup. [Our team](/contact) can walk through how your current price list and rate would carry over.

## Where the arithmetic goes wrong at the counter

Even a good price list can leak at checkout. The common failure points in two-currency shops:

- **A cashier's own rate.** If staff can type the exchange rate at the till, every cashier ends up with a slightly different one. That is margin walking out of the drawer one sale at a time.
- **Change given in the wrong currency.** A customer pays in dollars and gets change in pounds (or the reverse) at a rate nobody recorded. The drawer is then short in one currency and over in the other, and the end-of-day count can't explain either.
- **Reports that mix rates.** If last month's sales are reported at today's rate, your margin figures move even when your prices didn't. Each sale needs to keep the rate it was actually made at.
- **Old labels that survived the transition.** One product still showing an old-pound figure, or a leftover dual price, is enough to start an argument at the counter.

Our guide to [cash management for retail stores](/blog/cash-management-retail-store) covers drawer counts and handovers in more depth. The points above are the ones specific to running two currencies.

## How Sandooq handles a two-currency counter

Sandooq App is a point-of-sale system for MENA retail, built for Arabic and English bilingual retail operations. For a Syrian shop pricing in pounds and buying in dollars, four parts of it matter:

- **One rate, set centrally.** The exchange rate is set from the back office. In fixed mode, cashiers can't change it at the till. In floating mode, only managers can override it.
- **The rate is saved with every sale.** Each transaction stores the rate it was made at and where that rate came from, so a report on last month uses last month's rates.
- **Both currencies at the till.** The till takes payment in the second currency and records both the amount tendered and the change in each currency, so the drawer count can be matched per currency.
- **Receipts that show the working.** Receipts can print the total in both currencies with the rate used, so a customer paying in dollars against a pound price can check the maths.

What it does not do: it does not choose your rate for you, and it does not reprice your shelf when the rate moves. Those stay decisions for you, and step 5 above is how to make them deliberately. For turning sales history into pricing decisions, see our guide to the [weekly sales reports worth tracking](/blog/pos-sales-reports-retail-analytics).

> See how Sandooq simplifies cash management for two-currency shops: [book a guided walkthrough](/contact).

## Frequently asked questions

### Can I show prices in US dollars in my shop in Syria?

As of September 2026 the shelf price shown to customers should be in Syrian pounds. Inspectors from the Ministry of Economy and Industry have fined shops in Damascus for pricing in dollars, even though dealing in dollars itself is no longer banned. Many shops keep their costs and supplier accounts in dollars and show only the pound price on the shelf. Confirm your own obligations with the ministry, because enforcement has changed during 2026.

### Are old Syrian pound notes still accepted?

No. Old notes stopped being legal tender on 31 July 2026, after the exchange deadline was extended several times. From 31 July they can only be redeemed through the Central Bank of Syria, which accepts them for five years. A shop should not take old notes as payment. If a customer offers them, point them to the Central Bank rather than exchanging them yourself.

### How do I convert my old price list to the new pound?

Divide each old price by 100, because the redenomination removed two zeros. Then do not keep the raw result. Re-round each price to a figure customers can pay with the new notes, and check your margin at the same time, since many lists were converted in a hurry at the start of the year. It is also a good moment to replace every shelf label, so no old-pound figure stays on display.

### How often should a Syrian shop reprice when the dollar moves?

Set a trigger rather than a schedule. Pick the percentage movement in your conversion rate that justifies new labels, and check it on a fixed weekday. Below the trigger, hold prices steady so customers can trust them. Above it, reprice everything affected in one pass. A small buffer built into your conversion rate reduces how often the trigger is reached.

### Should I price on margin or markup?

On margin, because it matches how you will read your results. A markup adds a percentage to cost; a margin is the share of the selling price you keep. Pricing a 10-dollar item at 25% markup gives 12.50 and a 20% margin. Dividing cost by 0.75 gives 13.33 and the 25% margin you intended. Across hundreds of products the gap becomes real money.

## Authoritative sources

- Central Bank of Syria: redenomination at 100 to 1 from 1 January 2026, as reported by [SANA](https://sana.sy/en/economic/2286201/) and [Xinhua](https://english.news.cn/20251229/192c5a92ad34493d88cecd075a8b6301/c.html)
- Old notes cease to be legal tender on 31 July 2026, with five-year redemption at the Central Bank: [Enab Baladi](https://english.enabbaladi.net/archives/2026/07/syrian-central-bank-ends-debate-old-pound-invalid-after-july/) and [Arab News](https://www.arabnews.com/node/2652830/middle-east)
- Deadline extensions: [Central Banking](https://www.centralbanking.com/central-banks/currency/7976031/syria-extends-deadline-for-exchanging-old-currency) and [bne IntelliNews](https://www.intellinews.com/syrian-central-bank-extends-currency-exchange-deadline-to-end-july-445717/)
- Two prices per item during the transition: [Al Arabiya](https://www.alarabiya.net/aswaq/economy/2025/12/30/%D8%B3%D8%B9%D8%B1%D9%8A%D9%86-%D9%84%D9%83%D9%84-%D8%B3%D9%84%D8%B9%D8%A9-%D8%B3%D9%88%D8%B1%D9%8A%D8%A7-%D8%AA%D8%B9%D9%84%D9%86-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AA%D8%B3%D8%B9%D9%8A%D8%B1-%D8%AE%D9%84%D8%A7%D9%84-%D9%81%D8%AA%D8%B1%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D8%B3%D8%AA%D8%A8%D8%AF%D8%A7%D9%84-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%84%D9%8A%D8%B1%D8%A9)
- Pound-only shelf pricing enforced in Damascus (April 2026): [ANHA](https://hawarnews.com/ar/140780)
- Decision 767, final consumer price written on each product: [Al-Araby Al-Jadeed](https://www.alaraby.co.uk/economy/%D9%82%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%B1-%D8%AA%D8%B3%D8%B9%D9%8A%D8%B1-%D8%AC%D8%AF%D9%8A%D8%AF-%D9%81%D9%8A-%D8%B3%D9%88%D8%B1%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D9%81%D9%88%D8%B6%D9%89-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B3%D9%88%D9%82-%D9%88%D9%85%D8%AD%D8%A7%D9%88%D9%84%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B6%D8%A8%D8%B7)
- New-note shortages in markets: [ANHA](https://hawarnews.com/en/rejection-of-old-banknotes-shortage-of-new-ones-disrupt-syrian-markets)

## Related guides

- [POS system guide for Syria](/pos-system/syria)
- [Cash management best practices for retail stores](/blog/cash-management-retail-store)
- [POS sales reports every retail store should track weekly](/blog/pos-sales-reports-retail-analytics)
- [Purchase orders, goods-received notes and cost flow](/blog/grocery-pos-supplier-integration-purchase-orders)
- [Barcode and SKU setup for a clean shelf-label system](/blog/barcode-sku-management-retail)
- [See Sandooq pricing for your store size](/pricing)