Tripoli Chamber of Commerce called yesterday on all its members to attend an urgent meeting to be held today at its Tripoli headquarters to discuss Libya’s spiralling economic crisis.
Specifically, Tripoli Chamber said the meeting is to discuss ‘‘the recent decisions of the Central Bank of Libya (CBL), including the imposition of a tax on imported goods and its impact on rising prices and the resulting catastrophic devaluation of the Libyan dinar’’.
Background to Libya’s recent economic crisis
While Libya’s economic crisis can be traced back to the 2011 revolution and the country’s subsequent political split between west and east Libya, it will be recalled that the recent devaluation of the Libyan dinar by the CBL has led to the black-market exchange rate of the Libyan dinar against the US dollar skyrocketing to over the unprecedented LD 10.50 per dollar mark.
The leadership of parliament (the House of Representatives – HoR), without a discussion or vote by HoR members, has also colluded with the CBL Governor to attempt to force through new import taxes recently. This move was rejected by 107 HoR members, the High State Council and the Aldabaiba-led Tripoli based Libyan government.
The HSC has proposed an economic reform package.
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107 HoR members state that they have not issued the decision to impose new import taxes
CBL devalues Libyan dinar by 13.3 percent to LD 5.56 per dollar
CBL’s latest revenues and spending data reveals a dinar surplus but a dollar deficit








