Al-Zantouti: “After Today’s Dinar Devaluation – What’s Next, and Is This the End!?”

Financial Analyst Khaled Al-Zantouti wrote an article saying:
Today, our Central Bank came out with a decision to devalue the exchange rate by 13.3% (and I don’t know why the decimal is over 13 — is it the result of accurate calculations based on a fair pricing model for the dinar (I hope so), or is it a stroke of bad luck within a “hit or miss” framework?). In truth, the devaluation may exceed 16% if we take into account the increase in the tax amount as well.

This decision and its context are not surprising — it was expected from the Central Bank, as it has no other solutions under a miserable legacy and a bitter reality. And for that, it is excused — perhaps this is its way of showing the truth as it is. But the big question remains: Is this the end, or are there more endings to come?

We hope this is the end, but unfortunately, the data and figures presented by the Central Bank today suggest otherwise.
When the dollar spending deficit reaches around 50%, and when public debt hits 330 billion dinars, exceeding 130% of GDP, and this debt is consumptive, plagued by corruption and the corrupt… and when the per capita share of public debt reaches about 45,000 dinars (while less than two years ago it was 30,000 dinars), that means a yearly increase of about 25%, and when public spending reaches unprecedented levels, and salaries hit 75 billion, and the two governments continue in suspicious consumptive spending, and when, and when, and when… etc.

And when both legislators and executives insist on creating conflict and division, strengthening fragmentation to stay in power, fighting over shared wealth — with corrupt, corrupting hands, backed by power, dirty money, smuggling, mismanagement, regionalism, and quotas — and I don’t generalize…

Then what do you expect — is this the end?

Unfortunately, if we continue on this path, we’re heading toward the mother of all ends.
After this official devaluation of the dinar, traders will exploit the situation and raise their prices by much more than the devaluation percentage — some may raise prices by 25% or more. We’ll see!

They will ignore the fact that their letters of credit were opened at the old rate, and their warehouses are full of goods that have been stocked for a while. They were prepared — they knew in advance this devaluation was coming!
I don’t mean to generalize — maybe there are those who are honest with God and themselves.

The solution isn’t just in unifying the general budget. It goes much deeper — to treating the underlying causes of this unreasonable consumptive spending, to treating the corruption and mismanagement that made us among the world’s most infamous corrupt nations.

It means addressing our regional divisions, our “my share–your share” mentality. It means restructuring our economic and administrative systems with scientific, objective methods, and Libyan national spirit — even without any (pan-Arab) zeal, or Septemberist, or Februaryist affiliations.
We are all children of Libya. Libya is the homeland and the refuge.

If there is will and sincerity with God and the nation, the solutions are obvious, and we can all — I repeat, all — solve our economic, political, and social problems.
Just a bit of integrity, and remember the words of the Almighty:

“Indeed, Allah will not change the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves. And when Allah intends for a people ill, there is no repelling it. And there is not for them besides Him any patron.”
[Surah Ar-Ra’d, 13:11]
True are the words of God Almighty.