According to Libya's government the country's budget deficit will be $10 billion
this year, as the it struggles to pay its public sector workers and meet energy
costs. Speaking about the issue, National Transitional Council's (NTC) head Mustafa Abdel Jalil told French newspaper Figaro that the country has only recovered a fraction of $100 billion in assets frozen
abroad during the civil war.
Abdel Jalil noted: “The production of oil has brought in $4 billion in the last five months, while
the salaries of civil servants are $22 billion a year and spending on
electricity and fuel $14 billion...The budget being prepared should be in
deficit of $10
billion.”
On Monday 6th February, International Monetary Fund (IMF) said that restoring order to oil and gas production in Libya is central
to rebuilding the country's infrastructure, which has endured considerable
damage
during the eight months of civil war.
Speaking on January 19th, Libya's Central Bank governor Saddeq Omar Elkaber, said that the government's 2012 budget would register a 7 billion dinar ($5.6
billion) deficit and that the lifting of UN sanctions on the central bank's assets had unfrozen 95 per cent of its $100
billion in assets.
The government, however, is in the process of recovering frozen funds. Abdel
Jalil told the media: "Only $6 billion has been repatriated. We're still working to recover the
rest.” He also said that local councils were putting together organisational
structures and once they were in place money would be injected to pay civil
servants. He
added that the process should be completed by 17th February.
The NTC won NATO's backing with the removal of Colonel Mu'ammar Qadhafi last year, but it has to restore order in the country and disarm the various
militia groups. Abdel Jalil noted that it would be easier to amalgamate
militias
into the police and national army. He added: “Within two months we think we will have incorporated 60-70 per cent of the
revolutionaries.”
Sources: Reuters, Albawaba, WSJ
For more news and expert analysis about Libya, please see Libya Focus and Libya Politics & Security.