Naaman Elbouri, president of Libya’s private Assaray Trade and Investment Bank (ATIB) and Tadawul Financial Services, has proposed nine reform measures to avert the collapse of the dinar.
This suggestion, reignited monthly with the release of the Central Bank of Libya’s (CBL) budget data, centers on the urgent need to overhaul a centralised, rentier economy still shaped by the welfare state legacy of Muammar Gaddafi’s regime until 2011. It also aims to restore the dinar’s value against foreign currencies.
The dinar’s depreciation is not just a concern for financial experts. In February, Libya’s Grand Mufti, Sadeq Al-Ghariani, publicly decried the situation, stating that “every official in Libya should be ashamed of the dinar’s collapse, with the exchange rate nearing 7 dinars to the dollar.”
He pointed out the paradox of a country exporting 1.5 million barrels of oil daily and boasting an annual budget of 170 billion dinars, yet leaving its population in hardship.
“The average Libyan citizen walks humiliated, despised, exchanging their dinar for half a Tunisian dinar, or less,” he added.
The dinar’s current slide exposes deep structural flaws in Libya’s economy. Without fundamental reforms, reliance on oil and poor governance will continue to erode purchasing power.
SL/sf/lb/as/APA