Libya’s 2017 Oil Revenues and Economic Recovery

Libya earned $14 billion from oil in 2017, almost three times the $4.8 billion recorded in 2016. The increase accompanied a reduction in the national budget deficit from 20.3 billion Libyan dinars to 10.6 billion dinars, equivalent at the time to about $7.85 billion. The figures reflected a partial recovery in production despite continuing political and economic disruption.

Oil supplied more than 86 per cent of Libya’s national revenue of 22.31 billion dinars. State spending totalled 32.7 billion dinars, including 20.3 billion dinars for salaries and 6 billion dinars for subsidies. Production recovered to roughly one million barrels per day but remained below the 1.6 million barrels per day pumped before the 2011 uprising.

The Tripoli-based central bank continued to control and distribute oil receipts while Libya remained divided between rival institutions. Its figures excluded 22 billion dinars of spending that it regarded as unauthorised in the east. Inflation was about 30 per cent, the black-market exchange rate was around nine dinars to the dollar, and foreign reserves were estimated at $67.5 billion, down from $123.5 billion in 2012.