By Libya Herald reporter.
Tunis, 06 November 2015:
The Tripoli based Central Bank of Libya (CBL) has made a statement today in an . . .[restrict]effort to deflect criticism it is receiving as a result of the recent sharp rise in the foreign currency exchange rates, with the US dollar spiking from under LD 3 to a peak of LD 3.74 to the dollar. It subsequently stabilized at between 3.30-3.40.
The sharp sudden rise reflects further loss of confidence in the political and economic situation in Libya with the seeming collapse in the UN-led political dialogue as well as the militia clashes in the centre of Tripoli.
Today’s CBL statement was provoked by a planned demonstration on Sunday morning in front of the CBL in objection to the exchange rate rise.
The head of the Media department of the CBL said that ‘’the demonstrators have chosen the wrong place to demonstrate and that the correct place for them to be demonstrating should be the points of oil production and export’’.
The demonstrators should be demanding the resumption of oil exports and ‘‘the distancing of it (oil) from the political push and pull on the basis that oil is the only source of revenue, income and power for all the Libyan people without exception‘’.
The statement continued adding that the CBL had been ‘’very clear by issuing a number of statements warning that the country would go through a financial crises if the halting of oil production continued’’.
Despite that, it added that ‘’the CBL has not stood by, but has worked with the pertinent sections to reduce the effects of the lack of oil production as much as possible. The CBL has continued to call upon all sections of the Libyan people to the necessity for dialogue and accord in order to avoid the country falling into a real crises’, the statement ended’. [/restrict]