The Governor of the Central Bank of Libya, Al-Sidiq Al-Kabir called on the Speaker of the House of Representatives (HoR), Aqila Saleh, for the necessity of approving a unified government, unifying spending, and issuing a decision to devalue the dinar exchange rate to US dollar (USD) to address the current crisis.
This call came in a letter, in which Al-Kabir suggested adjusting the exchange rate to between 5.95 dinars and 6.15 dinars per dollar, thus devaluing the dinar as the current rate stands at 4.80 dinars per a dollar.
"This is to collect an amount of 12 billion dinars to pay off the debt and for development projects." Al-Kabir said, expecting that the volume of demand for the dollar this year would be about $36 billion, compared to oil revenues of $24 billion, meaning that the deficit would be very large, according to the letter.
The Governor indicated that expenditures for 2023 alone amounted to 165 billion dinars, with unknown-sources parallel spending, which increased the demand for foreign currency exchange.
Earlier on Tuesday, data issued by the Central Bank of Libya reported that the country’s revenues during last February amounted to 14 billion and 336 million dinars, while expenditures recorded 10 billion and 923 million dinars, achieving a surplus estimated at 3.4 billion dinars.
Oil sales revenues also amounted to 12 billion dinars, and oil royalties reached two billion dinars, while revenues from taxes, customs, and fuel sales did not exceed 52 million dinars, 65 million dinars, and 30 million dinars respectively, while the value of other revenues amounted to 219 million dinars.
The salaries of public and government institutions accounted for the majority of expenses during the past month, recording 10.3 billion dinars, while subsidies reached 623 million. The Central Bank’s data did not record any development, administrative, or emergency expenses or financial arrangements for the National Oil Corporation and the General Electricity Company.
