The bread crisis brought back the recurring differences between the President of the Presidency Council, Faiz Al-Sarraj, and the Governor of the Central Bank of Libya, Siddiq Al-Kabeer, to the scene, as it is a reflection of the state of tension that the executive authority is experiencing in the capital.
The Presidential Council blamed responsibility for managing the bread crisis on the Central Bank, saying its policies are insufficient in granting sufficient funds to import flour, threatening to use the frozen oil money in the foreign bank to supply flour to the bakeries, considering that the matter threatens social security and peace.
Observers believe that “Al-Sarraj” is biased towards “Al-Kabeer”, given that part of the responsibility rests on the role of the Ministry of Economy, which has the tools to study the market and the precise reserve ratio, considering that the “Presidential Council” is trying to exploit the crisis politically to tighten the grip on “Al-Kabeer” who has repeated disputes with Al-Sarraj.
For his part, Al-Kabeer responded to the presidential council statement, noting that the use of frozen revenues is against the law and an infringement of monetary policy, indicating at the same time that the Central Bank granted credits sufficient to the citizens’ need of flour.
The Governor of the Central Bank strengthened his response to “Al-Sarraj” by noting that commercial banks have worked to open credits to merchants since the third of January, in accordance with the decision of the Board of Directors to amend the official exchange at 4.48 dinars to one dollar.
These conflicts come at a time when it is difficult for the citizen to obtain a loaf of bread, the price of which has increased by twice, and the three loaves are now sold for a dinar, coinciding with the many closures of most of the 680 bakeries in Tripoli, amid daily appeals by citizens regarding improving services and the standard of living.
