Economical overview
Libya's economy is completely dominated by
the oil and gas sector, which before the civil war in
2011 accounted for almost all the state's revenue and
basically all exports. Oil production has been hit hard
by the war and the chaotic situation that has prevailed
since then, and it in turn impacts important social
functions.
During the 2011 conflict, oil production fell and
exports stopped, but both recovered quickly when Gaddafi
had fallen and in 2012 they were almost at the same
levels as before the war. The new management invested
heavily in recovery, and both government salaries and
subsidies increased substantially. The government's
budget more than doubled every year for three years.
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Countryaah.com:
Major imports by Libya, covering a full list of top products imported by the country and trade value for each product category.
But towards the end of 2012, protests and
disagreements began to affect production, and from the
summer of 2013, oil and gas plants were increasingly
affected by severe disruptions. Such disturbances did
not exist during the Gaddafi era. Security vacuum arose
and armed local groups could try to take control of the
infrastructure. Initially, it was mainly about
relatively concrete and often modest demands, for better
service or extended rights, but recurring production
cases have arisen when armed groups are fighting for
political influence and economic benefits.
Five years after the outbreak of war, oil production
was around one fifth of what it was before the war. In
addition, the world market price of oil had plunged,
which contributed to Libya's economy being perhaps the
fastest shrinking in the world. The 2015 budget deficit
reached over 50 percent of gross domestic product
(GDP), also a figure in the record class. In 2016,
production began to increase again and in the spring of
2017 it was for the first time back at the same level as
2014, but up to the levels noted before 2011 it has not
reached. The collapse in demand caused by the global
corona crisis, the outlook for återh ä mtning also
remain is bad.
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Abbreviationfinder.org: Check this abbreviation website to find three letter ISO codes for all countries in the world, including LBY which represents the country of Libya.
The Tripoli central bank, which received oil revenues
from the state oil company, has continued to pay
salaries to people employed by the state before 2014.
But in practice, the state economy has become
increasingly divided as the eastern Benghazi / Tobruk
regime manned own ministries and armed forces. Libya
already had more government employees in relation to the
population than almost any other country, and now the
two countrymen have dual administrations in several
respects, and were their central bank.
In October 2019, the Tripoli government introduced a
halt to wage increases for government employees. The
salaries of more than 150,000 employees in the education
system were completely withdrawn; those concerned were
invited to prove their qualifications in order to
continue their employment. The Treasury also undermined
by the large subsidies on basic commodities like fuel
and food subsidies that the UN-backed government in
Tripoli have been attempts for downstairs.
A military offensive against the capital from the
warlord Haftar's forces in the east has worsened the
situation since the spring of 2019, jeopardizing both
food supply and energy production. The escalated war
caused the development to go back again after a couple
of years when not least oil production had increased
again. Air traffic to and from the capital is just one
of many important functions hindered by the fighting,
and government revenues are eaten up by war costs.
From the east, it has been said that the staff
employed there in recent years also receive pay through
the parallel central bank, which has raised loans to
finance the alternative state apparatus. UN expertise
has reported to the UN Security Council that for several
years Haftar has been using a Russian banknote printing
machine, which delivered Libyan currency worth several
billion dollars to the East Central Bank. On the Russian
side, it has been argued that Haftar's regime is
legitimate and that its banknote issuance is legal,
while the United States considers it to be counterfeit.
Reports that "east currency" has been seized in Malta
have been hailed in Washington.
Widespread corruption and smuggling of subsidized
goods to neighboring countries are blocking the crisis.
At the beginning of 2020, the United Nations Food
Program WFP provided approximately 1 00 000 internal
refugees and 25 000 migrants with assistance in the form
of food packages.
Attempts previously made to reduce the importance of
oil, including ambitious plans to develop agriculture
and industry, did not work out well.
Increased exchange with China
Oil, the wholly dominant export commodity, accounts
for at least 95 percent of revenue. Natural gas has
become an important export commodity, especially since a
pipeline to Italy was completed in 2004. E uropean
countries took at the end of the 00's received more than
four-fifths of exports, with Italy as the largest
recipient. Just under a tenth went to China, whose share
was on the rise already during Gaddafi's era. No
reliable figures are available for recent years.
Much of the imports, which include food, come from
the same countries. China's share of imports has also
increased and Turkey is also an increasingly important
trading partner.
The ports of Tripoli and Benghazi were expanded in
the 21st century. The oil is transported through
pipelines from the oil fields to terminals on the coast,
from where it is shipped to customers abroad. Regular
production stops occur as a result of contradictions
between local authorities and the government (see
Calendar).
Libya has a fairly well-developed road network, but
maintenance is lagging and the roads are trafficked by
cars in poor condition. Several railway lines began to
be built towards the end of Gaddafi's empire, but the
war in 2011 led to the work being interrupted. The head
of the Transport Ministry stated in 2019 - when money
was budgeted for repairs for the first time - that some
roads were not repaired in 60 years. He also pointed out
that the risk of accidents is great: 2,500 deaths in
2018 meant that the traffic required more lives than the
violence between armed groups. In the two million city
of Tripoli, the number of privately owned cars increased
from 600,000 to two million between 2010 and 2019. This
has been done by importing cheap used cars - often
without seat belts and airbags -. In February 2019, the
government imposed an import ban on cars older than ten
years. The gasoline is state-subsidized: one liter of
gasoline costs less than one liter of mineral water,
according to the AFP news agency.
In theory, there are good conditions for tourism:
sunny beaches and grand historical remains from Greek
and Roman times, including in Sabrata, Leptis Magna,
Cyrene and Apollonia. Desert oases and prehistoric cave
paintings should also be attractive targets. During the
Gaddafieran, the government refused to invest in tourism
for a long time. Moreover, the country's bad reputation
frightened Western visitors, and Libya's isolation
during the 1990s made it impossible to invest even after
the government's attitude began to soften. First, in the
early 00s began Wasps me n u tvecklas. In the Civil War
et which erupted in 2011, with continued instability and
growing Islamist influence, is now believed to have
pushed the tourism industry into sank for a long time to
come.
FACTS - FINANCE
GDP per person
US $ 7,235 (2018)
Total GDP
US $ 48 320 million (2018)
GDP growth
7.8 percent (2018)
Agriculture's share of GDP
1.8 percent (2008)
Manufacturing industry's share of GDP
4.5 percent (2008)
Inflation
4.2 percent (2019)
Currency
Libyan dinar
Merchandise exports
US $ 6,764 million (2016)
Imports
US $ 8 667 million (2016)
Current account
- US $ 4 705 million (2016)
Commodity trade's share of GDP
70 percent (2018)
Main export goods
crude oil, petroleum products, natural gas
Largest trading partner
Italy, Germany, France, Spain, China
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