Economic expert Mohamed Al-Sanussi told our source that the economic scene is witnessing a state of optimism among the Central Bank and some citizens following the start of cash dollar distribution after more than ten years of interruption. Although the provision of foreign currency is part of the core function of the banking system\u2014just as the availability of medicine in pharmacies or doctors in hospitals\u2014the move has been widely welcomed due to the long absence of dollars from banks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He added that this raises a fundamental question: what prevented the Central Bank from providing cash dollars over all these years? So far, there are no indications of direct external restrictions or international decisions preventing this, despite calls for the Central Bank to disclose any such measures if they exist. The absence of a response, he said, suggests that the halt in foreign currency supply had no clear justification, and now citizens are being asked to celebrate its resumption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Al-Sanussi stated that the Central Bank appears to believe that selling cash dollars is a \u201cmagic wand\u201d that will eliminate the parallel market, noting that the same assumption was made previously when certain currency denominations were withdrawn, without any tangible impact on the parallel market. This, he said, reflects that the problem is deeper than a single tool or partial measure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He continued that the core issue is not the distribution mechanism itself, but the actual volume of foreign currency available. The individual allocation remains limited to $2,000 annually, and access procedures suffer from significant delays that may extend for weeks, with May announcements still processing March bookings. This reduces the effectiveness of the policy in meeting real market demand. He also criticized the limitation of access to specific channels, noting that distribution today resembles consumer cooperative systems, questioning the role of exchange companies and why individuals with foreign currency balances are prevented from withdrawing in dollars unless they choose cash receipt through the system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He further noted a decline in transparency regarding economic data publication, particularly the revenue and expenditure statement, as well as delays in issuing the Q1 2026 economic bulletin. He said these publications were essential references for analyzing the economic situation, and their delay weakens objective assessment and increases uncertainty among both analysts and decision-makers, giving the impression that the Central Bank is attempting to obscure the real economic situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Regarding the recent decline in the parallel market exchange rate, he said it is important to examine the underlying drivers. The drop is likely linked to reduced demand for dollars due to lower import volumes, rising goods prices, and increased shipping costs due to the war on Iran, rather than being a direct result of monetary policy effectiveness. Accordingly, the apparent improvement may reflect economic contraction rather than structural recovery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He concluded by questioning the readiness of current policies to handle a potential increase in foreign currency demand, especially if economic activity improves or external conditions change. Sustaining exchange rate stability, he said, does not depend on temporary measures but requires deeper reforms addressing structural imbalances in supply and demand, improving transparency, and enhancing the efficiency of monetary and fiscal policy management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Economic expert Mohamed Al-Sanussi told our source that the economic scene is witnessing a state of optimism among the Central Bank and some citizens following the start of cash dollar distribution after more than ten years of interruption. Although the provision of foreign currency is part of the core function of the banking system\u2014just as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":256900,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[613,790],"class_list":["post-256899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-libya","tag-parallel-market"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sada.ly\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sada.ly\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sada.ly\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sada.ly\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sada.ly\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=256899"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sada.ly\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256899\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":256901,"href":"https:\/\/sada.ly\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256899\/revisions\/256901"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sada.ly\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/256900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sada.ly\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sada.ly\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sada.ly\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}