The Libyan Central Bank has granted bank credits for 81 companies to import flour, Head of the Media Office in the CBL has declared.
Isam Al-Oul said that the time span of the bank credits given to the companies is from February to October 2015 with total value of 875 million Libyan dinars under an exchange rate of LYD 1.39 for $1.
This step by the CBL comes after the Deputy of the Ministry of Economy in the Salvation Government, Ali Mahjoub, confirmed that his ministry will keep the subsidy policy on the flour until the CBL presents a mechanism that facilitates distributing the alternative cash sums for citizens instead of the current subsidies on goods.
In the meantime, most Libyan bakeries are going through a troubling crisis as they are struggling to get subsidized flour from the government, which obliged them to buy it from the black market where a quintal of flour is sold at 75 dinars and thus bread prices skyrocketed in the market. Subsidized flour is sold to bakers at around 5 dinars per quintal.
Five subsidized loaves of bread are sold at a quarter of a dinar, which is the price of only one unsubsidized loaf.