Many milestones have passed on the Libyan economy ten years after the outbreak of the February 17 revolution, most of which were in the context of a decline in the state of the economy as a result of security and political instability over the past years, which prompted local and international supervisory bodies to raise the alarm to warn of billions lost in corruption.
During the past ten years; the Audit Bureau monitored in its reports a number of corruption operations, the most prominent of which was mentioned in a report for the year 2017 in which it was stated that government expenditures during five years amounted to 277, without affecting the general reality, and Libya is still suffering from a health, service and financial crisis, and corruption affected the oil sectors electricity, banks, and others, as most of them recorded embezzlement and thefts, which were mentioned in thousands of pages of reports of the monitoring agencies.
Talking about corruption operations leads us to the reports of Transparency International, which placed Libya, during the past years, in low positions, as Libya has, in most cases, settled on the list of the ten most corrupt countries in the world.
On the banking sector and the monetary policy of the Central Bank; the value of the dinar recorded its worst levels in recent years, through the black market and the deterioration of cash. The year 2017 was the harshest year; the value of the dinar against the dollar was at levels 9 dinars in cash and about 13 dinars in bank bonds, affected by the division of the Central Bank’s board of directors in 2014, and this continued until December 2020.
In terms of the official value of the dinar; It declined significantly against the dollar compared to the official rate, which was at 1.40 dinars before the Presidential Council imposed a fee on the dollar in December 2018, by 183% for commercial and personal purposes, before the Central Bank Board of Directors returned, at the end of 2020, and reduced the value of dinar against the dollar at 4.48 dinars per dollar.
During the past years, the Central Bank was unable to overcome the liquidity crisis and recover part of the funds circulating with the public, which amounted to more than 55 billion, which is four times higher compared to 2011, when it was then 14.5 billion dinars.
The oil sector revenues have fluctuated significantly since 2012; Due to military, security and political events; The past years witnessed repeated closures; Most notably the closure, which lasted from 2013 to 2016, and cost expected revenue losses of one hundred billion dollars, when “Ibrahim Al-Jadhran” closed the export ports, and in 2020 some tribes in the Oil Crescent region closed the oil ports, during the period between January and September; objecting to the mechanism for managing oil revenues in Libya. This caused a loss of ten billion dinars.
Institutional consolidation efforts became more prominent in late 2020 and early this year, as last December, the Board of Directors of the Central Bank of Libya held its first unified meeting since 2014 via the internet.
Ministry of Finance; last January, caught up with the institutions heading for unification after a six-year’s split, and the efforts culminated in a meeting that brought together the two poles of the ministry led by Faraj Bumtari and the Undersecretary and Chargé d’Affairs to Benghazi, Emragie Ghaith, last January hosted by the city of Brega, in the presence of directors of departments from both sides; this resulted in the formation of a unified financial committee, whose role is to bridge the gap in viewpoints, and this February, the United Nations mission said that the Libyan parties agreed to adopt a unified budget of nine billion dinars that was allocated to cover government expenses.
For its part, “ESCWA”, which is one of the five regional commissions of the United Nations, indicated in a report it issued last December that the total cost of the conflict in Libya from 2011 until today was estimated at $576 billion, according to the official exchange rate because there are multiple exchange rates.
The report warns that the cost of the conflict will increase sharply if a peace agreement is not signed in the coming years, according to ESCWA estimates; If the conflict continues for another five years, the economic cost will increase.
