Bread on credit days after payday
LIBYA – Faisal Bualraiqa, a researcher in national security affairs, has said that less than 10 days after salaries are paid, many Libyans are forced to buy bread on credit from bakeries, with their purchases recorded in shop ledgers until the next salary arrives — a sign, he said, of deteriorating living standards.
Warnings of eroding trust and social stability
In a post on his Facebook page, Bualraiqa said meagre salaries had been worn down by the high cost of living and the dollar rate charged by traders, amid corruption and the seizure of wealth that he said were eating away at state institutions.
He said that, in national security terms, trust in the state begins to erode, the causes of social anger build up and people’s daily bread becomes a dangerous indicator of fragile stability, stressing that these signs showed the extent to which the state’s thinking and its decision-making centre were absent.
