By Sami Zaptia.
London, 25 April 2016:
The Audit Bureau 2015 Annual Report states that a number of Libyan government loans or grants, from the . . .[restrict]Qaddafi era, in various forms and to a number of foreign states that are still unpaid.
These total over US$ 7 bn (LD 10bn). The report states that only 0.8 percent of these loans have been repaid, which it says is a vary inadequate amount.
The report says that many of the recipient states are failing to keep to the loan terms of paying back the tranches of their loans or the accruing interest in a timely manner. It pointed out that many of these loans are politically motivated loans.
As examples, the report highlighted a loan to Russia due in 1992 and a loan to Cuba due in 1999. Other outstanding loans/grants from the Libyan state included those to Niger, Egypt, Mozambique, Central African Republic, Pakistan, Croatia, Congo, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Tanzania, Burkina Faso and Macedonia.
It will be recalled that Libya is currently going through a very acute economic crises with annual budget deficits. Libya’s oil production has collapsed to 27 percent of its recent peak 2012 level. [/restrict]
