Omar Zarmuh, one of the most prominent economic experts in Libya, announced that the country faces great challenges as the blockade of oil fields and ports continues, which led to the drop in the National Oil Corporation’s exports to its lowest levels for the first time since 2011.
In an interview with the economic newspaper “Sada”, Zarmuh suggested solutions to the Libyan Central Bank as well as to the NOC in order to deal with the current situation under the circumstances of war, political division and the shortage of oil revenues.
He also talked about the short and long-term implications of the decrease in oil production, which will lead to a drop in the state’s general budget revenues. Morover, he statet that “if the Central Bank has to withdraw from its reserve to finance oil imports, then Libya’s foreign exchange reserves will be eroded as well”.
Nevertheless, he insisted that the decline in non-oil revenues such as taxes, customs duties and other project revenues represent a major weakness.
According to the report of the Libyan Central Bank concerning the State budget for 2019, the communication sector contributes to financing the budget. But in return, most other companies do not contribute to the country’s revenues, among which the Libyan Investment Authority, despite that its capital is estimated at 65 billion dollars. He also hoped that the contributions of these companies surpass 25% of the budget rather than 5%.