After a month strolling the gold market in Libya\u2019s capital, retired public servant Milud Farhat was unable to find any jewelry he could afford for his daughter\u2019s wedding.<\/p>\n
The 60-year-old is typical of Libya\u2019s once well-to-do middle class, impoverished by high inflation and devaluation during years of conflict in what used to be one of the Arab world\u2019s wealthiest countries.<\/p>\n
In contrast, armed groups whose commanders cruise Tripoli\u2019s pot-holed streets in luxury cars have become rich by forcing authorities to hire them and grant them cheap dollars they can change on the black market for a premium.<\/p>\n
To tackle this \u201cwar economy\u201d, Tripoli\u2019s internationally recognized government in September effectively devalued the exchange rate to 3.9 dinars per dollar from 1.3.<\/p>\n
That cut the black market rate from 6 to 5.2, which shoppers and traders said had slightly eased prices for food and other goods, many of which are imported.<\/p>\n
But for Farhat, who lives on a pension of 400 dinars per month, it made little difference. The wedding of his youngest daughter, his seventh child, is coming up, and jewelry for the bride is a must in Libya.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have been coming every day for a month hoping that (gold) prices go down,\u201d he said. \u201cNormal people are just suffering,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Gold prices have dipped a little to around 180 dinars ($46) an ounce since the devaluation, but are still triple their level in 2014 when the dinar started diving due to volatile oil revenues, Libya\u2019s lifeline.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe gold market is still very, very weak. Seventy-five percent of people coming are just asking,\u201d said gold trader Abdelhamid al-Zawi, standing in front of his empty shop.<\/p>\n
Economic policies are distorted by rivalry between the Tripoli government and a parallel administration in the east that set up its own central bank in the aftermath of the Nato-backed uprising that toppled Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.<\/p>\n
Overall oil revenue is up: the Tripoli-based National Oil Corporation expects income from crude and oil product sales to hit $23.7 billion in 2018, a 73 percent jump from last year.<\/p>\n
But money in the banks can be scarce. Many keep cash at home as they do not trust banks or play the black market.<\/p>\n
They also stopped restricting credit letters for imports, which Deputy Prime Minister Ahmed Maiteeg said would help end the liquidity crisis by early 2019.<\/span><\/p>\n For a small and well-connected elite, money is still flowing as they keep a grip on business and oil revenues. In Tripoli\u2019s upmarket neighborhoods, sleek stores sell international fashion brands and new restaurants and cafes are opening.<\/p>\n But elsewhere in the capital, building projects halted during the 2011 uprising litter the skyline and rubbish lies uncollected. Many are still queuing at banks hoping to access their salaries but are unable to withdraw significant amounts.<\/p>\n \u201cSometimes you get 150 dinars. What can you do with that?,\u201d said Mahdi Ali Makhfuth, another pensioner shopping for food with two sons.<\/p>\n Authorities have also allowed citizens to bring up to $10,000 from abroad with credit cards, which Maiteeg said was bringing down the black market rate.<\/p>\n But Makhfuth dismissed the measure as benefiting the rich. \u201cDo normal citizens have 40,000 dinars in their accounts? No,\u201d he said, referring to the amount needed to access that maximum dollar allowance.<\/p>\n After a series of raids on the black market since September, dealers who use black plastic bags to carry dollars and wheelbarrows for devalued dinars have simply shifted into the labyrinth of the old city.<\/p>\n And despite new central bank measures to prevent currency scams, Alaeldin Elmasallati, commissioner at Libya\u2019s audit bureau, said they would still be possible due to lack of enforcement capacity<\/p>\n source: reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" After a month strolling the gold market in Libya\u2019s capital, retired public servant Milud Farhat was unable to find any jewelry he could afford for his daughter\u2019s wedding. People shop at a market in the old city of Tripoli, Libya November 24, 2018. REUTERS\/Hani Amara The 60-year-old is typical of Libya\u2019s once well-to-do middle class, impoverished by high inflation and… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":116,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/116"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2618"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2618\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2619,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2618\/revisions\/2619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}