The Minister of Economy and Industry, Ali Issawi, said that the government was forced to reduce the budget of 2020 by nearly one-third because of the “double trauma” of blocking the country’s oil production and lowering its global price.

In yesterday’s statement to AFP, Issawi clarified that the government intended to approve an ambitious budget in 2020, which was estimated at 55 billion dinars, but the “double trauma” forced the government to reduce it to about 38 billion dinars.

He also added that the budget reduction would greatly affect the public services and investment as constructing new schools and hospitals, as well as investments in the renewal of oil infrastructure would be postponed. Thus, the government should reduce the growth rate that it had estimated by 6 percent

Ali Issawi pointed out that the government’s priority now is to find alternative sources of funding in order to finance the state budget, and confirmed that the first Libyan bonds will be issued this year in the form of Islamic instruments with the support of the International Monetary Fund along with the World Bank.