Libyans grapple with fresh currency devaluation

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Tripoli: Libyan people are now facing a rapid deterioration of their purchase power after the sudden decline of Libya’s dinar, Libyan Dinar, suffering from the political turmoil and economic difficulties of the first years.

Experts have said that the national currency exchange rate has decreased in recent years as a result of the country’s rival governments being exposed to public spending.

Libya has the most palpable hydro -carbon reserves in Africa, but after the 2011 NATO -backed uprising is struggling to rescue years of conflicts, which ended the long -standing dictator Movement Kadafi. It is divided between an unidentified government and the East’s economic administration in the capital.

Earlier this month, Libya’s central bank appreciated the dinar by 13.3 %, another such move in five years. The exchange rate increased from 4.48 to 5.56 dinar – while in the black market it increased from 6.9 to US $ 7.8 fuel.

This was immediately effective, with small business owners and wholesaler traders, who relied heavily on the parallel market to obtain foreign currency for imports, seeing their costs. “The currency is decreasing,” said Karim Achaf, “We have a 27 -year -old engineer and three living in the capital, Tapri,” “We live in the bill. “Economy and safety.”

‘Quick steps’

Despite the vast oil reserves, production is lower than the pre -2011 level and lacks a strong industrial and agricultural sector in the country. It depends almost imported fully imported food, medical equipment and consumer goods, in which oil exports are the main source of its income.

The United Nations Support Mission (UNSMIL) in Libya has expressed alarm after a sudden reduction, urging both administrations to “take immediate steps to strengthen the national economy”.

He said in a statement, “High -speed action is essential to reduce the negative impact on the people of Libya, which includes the increasing cost of life, the reduction of purchase power and the elimination of public confidence in state institutions and leaders.”

The bank said that the Central Bank Governor Naji Isa met two rival administration leaders about “reforms to fight the crisis”, the bank said. Osama Hamad, who headed the Eastern government on Thursday, is ready to meet Prime Minister Abdul Hameed Debba, the Prime Minister of the Tapal -based administration, and to give priority to the interests of the citizens. “

In Tripoli, dozens of protesters recently gathered outside the central bank’s headquarters to give their anger. But when most criticism is intended to be in the bank, some believe that political disruptions and financial mismanagement problems are unfair.

The central bank “is suffering from failure and division of the executive branch,” said Mahmud al -Tajani, a Libyan economist. “It is forced to make a decision to protect the rest of the dinar’s power,” he said.

During the fall of oil revenue, the decline in the value of the dinar was used as a “last opportunity step to avoid bankruptcy and external debt”. Libyan institutions have found trapped among their rival governments for a decade.

By 2023, the bank was divided into two parts, the internationally recognized headquarters in the capital and another in the east, each printing bills were signed by its respective governors. The last year, the then governor, then the then governor, fled during violent tensions around the institution. The United Nations took steps to broker a deal, under which the new governor, Jesus, was appointed.

‘Sacrifice goat’

Jalil Harchai, a senior fellow at the Royal United Services Institute based in London, said the central bank “is facing the inevitable consequences of the political election made by the Libyan ruling factions.”

“These costs are extremely political, discretion and unstable,” he said.

“It is pure populism to accuse the central bank,” Harchau added.