The report of the Central Bank Control Department reveals important details regarding requests to purchase foreign exchange according to countries and sectors

The report of the Cash and Banking Control Department, of which our source obtained an exclusive copy, revealed that European countries are the most regions to which commercial banks transfer foreign exchange for the purposes of covering documentary credits or other transfers, as their relative importance during 2022 amounted to about 51.0% of the total requests for purchase foreign exchange, due to the fact that it is considered the main trading partner of Libya.

Then comes the Arab countries in terms of relative importance with a rate of 35.0%, while the Asian countries accounted for 10.4%, while the countries of North, Central and South America accounted for 2.6%. The data indicates a weak trade exchange between Libya and African countries, Australia and New Zealand, which constituted 0.3% and 0.7%, respectively.

The report also revealed the requests of banks to purchase foreign exchange (according to the beneficiary countries) during the year 2022. It is clear that goods and services from the United Arab Emirates ranked first, accounting for 20.2% of the total, then imports of goods and services from Turkey came in second place and represented 13.2% of the total, and Switzerland and Tunisia accounted for 10.2% and 8.5%, respectively.

It should be noted that 52.1% of the total requests of banks to cover foreign exchange were for goods and services received from the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Switzerland and Tunisia).

The report disclosed the banks’ requests to purchase foreign exchange (according to the countries of origin of the goods or services): it is clear that the incoming goods and services of Turkish origin ranked first, accounting for 15.1% of the total, while the imports of goods or services of European origin came in second place, and its proportion was 14.3% of the total, and goods or services of Chinese origin accounted for 9.4%, and of Tunisian origin 8.8%. It should be noted that 47.5% of the total requests of banks to cover foreign exchange were for goods or services originating in countries (Turkey, Europe, China and Tunisia).

The report also revealed the requests of commercial banks to purchase foreign exchange by sector, as the requests of commercial banks to purchase foreign exchange by the private sector for production and operation requirements ranked first in the total purchase requests during 2022, as it constituted 7.6% of the total requests for the purchase of foreign exchange. Whereas, requests covering the import of raw materials ranked second in terms of relative importance, constituting about 6.6%, while requests covering the import of cooking oil and cars accounted for 4.1% and 3.9%, respectively.

As for the public sector, the foreign exchange purchase requests of commercial banks for the public sector for the requirements for operating the iron and steel plant ranked first in the total purchase requests during the year 2022, as it constituted 29.0% of the total foreign exchange purchase requests, while the requests to cover the import of requirements for the production of basic commodities came. In the second place in terms of relative importance, it constituted 11.8%, and requests for production and operation requirements came in the third place, with a rate of 11.0% of the total, while requests to cover the import of machinery and equipment constituted 10.9% of the total requests.