Libya’s central bank has announced a 13.3% devaluation of the country’s dinar currency, setting the exchange rate at 5.5677 to the US dollar, effective immediately.
This marks the first official devaluation since 2020, when the bank agreed to a devalued exchange rate of 4.48 dinars to the dollar.
The parallel market exchange rate currently stands at 7.20 dinars to the dollar.
The move comes as Libya continues to grapple with economic divisions and instability, which have persisted since a NATO-backed uprising in 2011 led to a split between eastern and western factions, each governed by rival administrations.
The country’s public debt currently stands at 270 billion dinars, with projections that it could exceed 330 billion dinars by the end of 2025 due to the lack of a unified budget.
The central bank has also reported that the two governments’ spending in 2024 totaled 224 billion dinars, including 42 billion dinars for crude-for-fuel swaps.
This economic instability is further complicated by global economic shifts, such as the impact of US tariffs on international trade.
