The governor of the Central Bank of Libya (CBL) Al-Siddiq Al-Kabir, in a briefing at the Tripoli-based House of Representatives Tuesday, said the general debt of the state reached a record high of 270% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), adding that Libyan oil revenues dropped dramatically from 53.2 billion dollars in 2012 to almost (Zero) 2020.
He said these losses led to the shelving of economic reform in 2018 and 2019, adding that Libya lost over 180 billion dollars in oil blockade, which is similar to receiving “a bullet to the head.”
Al-Kabir warned of a financial collapse due to the increased general debt of the state, and of the suspension of oil production and exports, which he said would be catastrophic to the state amid the unprecedented decrease of CBL reserves and plummeting oil prices globally.
He also indicated that Libya should work immediately to increase oil output to reach 1.7 million barrels per day to cover the basic expenditures of the state.
The CBL governor remarked that the efforts of the CBL and Audit Bureau led to a decrease in 2020 monetary arrangements from 51 billion dinars proposed by the Ministry of Finance with 40 billion dinars deficit to 38.5 billion dinars – a decrease of 13 billion and deficit of 27 billion.
“The parallel CBL in eastern Libya printed 15 billion dinars in Russia and used it to fund the parallel government’s expenditures there, in addition to the Commerce and Development Bank’s direct loan of 6 billion dinars to Haftar’s militias.” Al-Kabir lamented, signaling out the economic misconduct that led to the current deficit in Libya.
