Yesterday, the governor of the Central Bank of Libya Seddik Al-Kabir claimed that a blockade of major Libyan oil ports is damaging the economy and must be quickly resolved, adding that Libya might run a budget deficit in 2020.

“Now oil represents 93% to 95% of total revenue and covers 70% of total spending. This is a bullet in the head, that will hurt Libya and the Libyan people…We really hope that the crisis ends as fast as possible because it hurts everyone.” Al-Kabir announced in an interview in London.

He also clarified that the Central Bank had not yet agreed on a budget for 2020 with the internationally recognised government, which proposed a budget deficit of 17.5 billion LYD.

He added “We rejected that and asked them to trim spending,” stressing that a deficit is still possible due to the oil blockade.

Al-Kabir said that authorities made 23.8 billion LYD in 2019 as fees on hard currency sales which were introduced in 2018 as part of economic reforms.

“In 2018, fees worth 13.2 LYD were collected”, he claimed.

Al-Kabir declined to give a figure for foreign reserves but said they had risen slightly in the last two years, when oil production was more stable than in the aftermath of the 2011 revolution.