Posting on the Libyan Business Council’s (LBC - Eastern Region Branch) official social media site, Dr. Mohamed Al-Manfi, Advisor to LBC (Eastern Region Branch) reported that, according to data from the Bureau of Statistics and Census (Ministry of Planning), the inflation rate in Libya for September 2026 reached an average of 16% compared to the same month last year.
Al-Manfi proposed that this means:
- The purchasing power of the Libyan dinar has decreased by 16%.
- People’s wealth and savings have declined by 16%.
- Wages have effectively decreased by 16%.
He subsequently said an important question arises: Is this inflation driven by external or internal factors?
He highlighted the fact that for the same period, inflation rates were:
- 4% in Europe
- 3.6% in the United States
- 5% in India
- 1% in China
Inflation has been a huge topic of debate in Libya especially by the strata with fixed and low incomes.
Rightly or wrongly, it has been taken as a given that because Libya imports a huge amount of what it consumes across all sectors – this inflation has been attributed to the exchange rate of the US dollar on the parallel market and the loss of value of the Libyan dinar.
The House of Representatives, under new leadership, has this last week initiated a debate and study of Libya’s economic crisis with the aim of coming up with economic reforms to ameliorate the economic situation.