Dollar pressure on food prices and households
Libya – Khaled Bouzaakouk, head of the Benghazi Forum for Economic Development, said he had recorded a rise of between 10% and 15% in the prices of basic goods as the dollar climbed gradually from 8 dinars last month to its current level in an import-dependent market.
Price rises and the school-year burden
Speaking to Asharq Al-Awsat, Bouzaakouk said the increases covered meat, rice, oil, eggs, bottled water and other staples, weighing on households — especially government employees, who number more than two million and most of whom are on grades paying between 1,000 and 2,500 dinars a month. He pointed to heavier costs as families bought supplies for the new school year, whose prices had also been affected by the dollar.
Letters of credit and government spending
He argued that limiting imports to essential goods could help curb fictitious letters of credit, through which, he said, some traders obtain dollars at a preferential rate without importing real goods and then sell them on the black market. He said expanded spending by the rival governments — especially large reconstruction contracts — along with corruption and weak oversight and prosecution because of the split, blunted the effect of any official measure.
Stagnation and living costs
Bouzaakouk warned that if the dollar kept rising while households allocated about 70% of their budgets to food and medicine, clothing and appliance markets could tip into sharp stagnation. He also pointed to what he described as phenomena produced by the high cost of living, including families seeking help online to cover medical treatment.
