The Central Bank of Libya (CBL) claims that the near total shutdown of the country’s oil industry has yet to necessitate a raid on the country’s foreign currency reserves to finance this year’s budget.
This appears somewhat incredible given that even back-of-the envelope calculations indicate losses of around $12bn from the ongoing outages; and that Libya was already budgeting for a $3.6bn (4% of GDP) deficit this year, albeit one based on a conservative $90/B oil price assumption (MEES, 22 March) (CONTINUED - 791 WORDS)
