Written by: Businessman Husni Bey.
Enough defending administrative decisions! Enough defending an exchange rate determined by administrative decrees, as though such decisions could determine the value of the dinar and its purchasing power independently of economic realities. We have been repeating the same mistakes since 1982.
Enough reducing the economic crisis to political division and calling for a unified government, as though having a single government would automatically restore economic balance. Libya had one government from 1982 until 2021, and past experience disproves this claim.
Approximately 93% of public revenues come from oil and gas, which are already managed by a single set of centralized institutions.
The problem is not simply the existence of multiple governments, but rather the presence of multiple spending centers, the absence of fiscal discipline, and expenditure that exceeds sustainable resources.
Since 1982, the same imbalances have continued to recur: expanding public expenditure, deficit financing, pressure on the dinar, followed by administrative attempts to address the consequences.
The authorities can determine public spending and the official exchange rate, but they cannot impose the dinar’s real value or purchasing power through administrative decisions.
The gap between the official and parallel-market exchange rates is not a monetary achievement. Rather, it is a source of rent-seeking and economic distortions whose costs are ultimately borne by citizens.
Unifying the government is necessary, but it cannot replace the need to unify public finances, control expenditure, and put an end to monetary financing of the deficit.
To economics professors: defend economic balance, not figures maintained through administrative decisions.
The economy does not bend to political wishes. What we fail to address today through fiscal discipline, we will pay for tomorrow through inflation, the erosion of purchasing power, and the depletion of foreign currency reserves.
