Criticism of temporary fixes for the bread crisis
LIBYA – Ali Al-Sharif, professor of economics at the University of Benghazi, has argued that the measures taken to contain the bread crisis were aimed at calming the street rather than at plans to secure a strategic stockpile, warning that the crisis could return in the coming months given the lack of coordination between the two governments.
Bread the last line of social protection
In exclusive comments to Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper, Al-Sharif said bread represents “the last line in the social safety net”, criticising its recurring crises in an oil-producing country with a small population compared with its neighbours.
He argued that the real test of containing the wave of price rises is not lowering the price of flour alone, but lowering the dollar rate to curb rising prices.
A lower dollar depends on controlling spending and imports
Al-Sharif welcomed the new House of Representatives Presidency’s attention to rising prices, but argued that directing parliamentary committees to coordinate with the Central Bank of Libya to lower the dollar exchange rate, and promoting this as a decision already in force, could raise citizens’ expectations that the crisis can be solved within hours.
He stressed that, in his estimate, the exchange rate will fall only if public spending is controlled and import needs are defined, warning that large quantities of subsidised goods are being smuggled to neighbouring countries to the south.
