سيارة الدوارة جهاز التحكم عن بعد
وفر 17%! اشترِ سيارة الدوارة جهاز التحكم عن بعد بسعر 450 د.ل فقط في ليبيا. متوفر
🛒 تسوق الآنFrom Credits to Cards: How Libya's Dollar Speculation Empire Expanded
From Credits to Cards: How Libyas Dollar Speculation Empire Expanded
Libyas parallel currency market has evolved from a modest exchange mechanism into a sprawling network of dollar speculation, with billions flowing through informal channels each month. Two prominent economists have now sounded the alarm, warning that the countrys foreign exchange system has been hijacked by a powerful class of brokers and speculators who profit from the gap between official and black-market rates.
The Origins: Credits and Empty Containers
Economic expert Nazem Al-Tayari traces the roots of the crisis to the period between late 2016 and 2018, which he describes as the era of the credits and empty containers scandal. During this time, banks sold US dollars at the official rate of approximately 1.40 Libyan dinars, while the black-market rate surged past 10 dinars per dollar — a spread exceeding 600 percent.
This massive gap created an unprecedented arbitrage opportunity. Well-connected individuals and networks secured dollar-denominated import credits and personal allowance cards, then resold the currency on the parallel market for enormous profits. Al-Tayari estimates that billions of dollars flowed out of Libya in a single month through these channels alone.
The practice was so widespread that the black market began referring to the US dollar simply as merchandise — a commodity to be bought and sold daily, rather than a medium of exchange for legitimate needs like education, medical treatment, or tourism.
The Personal Allowance Card Loophole
While import credits have drawn scrutiny for years, economist Mokhtar Al-Jadid has focused attention on a more recent mechanism: personal dollar allowance cards. These cards, intended to give ordinary citizens access to foreign currency for legitimate personal use, have become a primary vehicle for speculation.
Al-Jadid explains that the original cardholders rarely see the dollars themselves. Instead, brokers collect dozens — sometimes hundreds — of cards from citizens inside bank branches, withdraw the full foreign currency allocation, and funnel it directly into the parallel market. The cardholders receive a modest fee; the brokers pocket the difference between the subsidized official rate and the black-market price.
This mechanism has expanded the dollar speculation ecosystem far beyond its original players, drawing in ordinary citizens as unwitting participants and creating a self-reinforcing cycle that drains Libyas foreign reserves.
A Growing Speculator Class
Al-Tayari points to a telling indicator of the speculations scale: the aggressive public reaction whenever news breaks of a potential dollar decline. He argues that the intensity of online attacks and pushback reflects the sheer size of the population that now depends on a weak dinar for its livelihood.
The Central Bank of Libya has attempted to address the gap, devaluing the dinar by 13.3 percent in April 2026 to set the official rate at 5.5677 LYD per dollar. Yet the parallel market rate continues to diverge, with recent reports placing it around 8.37 LYD per dollar — still a gap of roughly 50 percent.
Calls for Security-Led Intervention
Both economists are urging decisive action. Al-Tayari points to Egypts experience, where criminalizing dollar trading outside official channels significantly curbed parallel market activity. He warns that without similar measures, Libyas black market will remain a permanent nightmare threatening the dinar and the national economy.
Al-Jadid advocates a more targeted approach: shutting down the personal allowance card system and replacing it with direct cash disbursements that require the physical presence of the account holder. This would eliminate the broker intermediary and ensure dollars reach their intended recipients.
The Broader Economic Toll
The dollar speculation crisis is not an isolated financial issue. It fuels inflation, distorts import prices, erodes public trust in banking institutions, and deepens the divide between Libyas competing political authorities. With the Central Bank itself a subject of political standoff, comprehensive reform remains elusive.
For ordinary Libyans, the cost is measured in everyday terms: higher prices for food, medicine, and basic goods, and a currency that buys less with each passing month. Until the structural incentives for speculation are dismantled, the empire built on Libyas dollar gap will continue to expand.
