Libya Agrees a Budget of $33.83 billion for 2019

  • Tripoli, State of Libya
  • 19 March 2019
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The Libyan government has agreed with the Central Bank to approve the 2019’s budget, which amounted to 46.8 billion dinars (about $33.83 billion). The "financial arrangements," as the budget is officially called, include an increase compared with the previous year's budget of 42 billion dinars.

The government announced in a brief statement that after an extensive discussion, there was an agreement on the total value of the financial arrangements, which amounted to 46.8 billion dinars.

Libya lacks a balance in the real sense in light of the division of power between the UN-backed government of Tripoli and a parallel administration allied to the internationally recognized parliament in the east, so the central bank agreed with Tripoli with implicit approval from the authorities in the east by the mediation of western powers and international institutions, agreed on a budget that mainly covers the public sector salaries and the fuel subsidies for the entire country.

The dispute between the government of Tripoli and the Central Bank over how to use the proceeds of fees of 183% is being imposed on the foreign currency transactions since autumn, where the fees are designed to bridge the gap between the official exchange rate and the black market price by moving the official price to 3.9 dinars practically per dollar while the price was 1.4 dinars before.

Source: (CNBC Arabic Website, Edited)