Libyan pound
The Libyan pound was the currency of Libya between 1951 and 1971. The pound was divided into 1000 milliemes; when Libya was a part of the Ottoman Empire, the country used the Ottoman qirsh, issuing some coins locally until 1844. When Italy took over the country in 1911, the Italian lira was introduced. In 1943, Libya was split into British mandate territories. Algerian francs were used in the French mandate, whilst Tripolitanian lira issued by the British Military Authorities were used in the British mandate. In 1951, the pound was introduced, replacing the franc and lira at rates of 1 pound = 480 lire = 980 francs; the pound was replaced, at par, by the dinar in 1971 following the Libyan Revolution of 1969. Coins were issued in 1952 in denominations of 1 and 2 piastres. In 1965, a second series of coins was issued in denominations of 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100 milliemes; these coins continued to circulate after 1971 as no new coins were issued until 1975. In 1951, the government issued notes in denominations of 5 and 10 piastres, ¼, ½, 1, 5 and 10 pounds.
In 1959, the National Bank of Libya took over the issuance of paper money with denominations of ½, 1, 5 and 10 pounds. In 1963, the Bank of Libya took over from the National Bank and issued notes in the same denominations
Economy of Libya
The Economy of Libya depends upon revenues from the petroleum sector, which represents over 95% of export earnings and 60% of GDP. These oil revenues and a small population have given Libya one of the highest nominal per capita GDP in Africa. After 2000, Libya recorded favourable growth rates with an estimated 10.6% growth of GDP in 2010. This development was interrupted by the Libyan Civil War, which resulted in contraction of the economy by 62.1% in 2011. After the war the economy rebounded by 104.5% in 2012, but crashed again following the Second Libyan Civil War. As of 2017, Libya's per capita PPP GDP stands at 60% of its pre-wars level. Libya had seen fantastic growth rate, however these proved unsustainable in the face of global oil recession and international sanctions; the GDP per capita shrank by 40% in the 1980s. Successful diversification and integration into the international community helped current GDP per capita to cut further deterioration to just 3.2% in the 1990s. Libyan GDP per capita was about $40 in the early 1920s and it rose to $1,018 by 1967.
In 1947 alone, per capita GDP rose by 42 percent. The following table shows the main economic indicators in 1980–2017. Inflation below 5 % is in green. Notes: 1. For purchasing power parity comparisons, the US Dollar is exchanged at 0.77 Libyan Dinars only. Mean wages were $9.51 per man-hour in 2009. Libya is an OPEC member and holds the largest proven oil reserves in Africa, 41.5 Gbbl as of January 2007, up from 39.1 Gbbl in 2006. About 80% of Libya's proven oil reserves are located in the Sirte Basin, responsible for 90% of the country's oil output; the state-owned National Oil Corporation dominates Libya's oil industry, along with smaller subsidiaries, which combined account for around 50% of the country's oil output. Among NOC's subsidiaries, the largest oil producer is the Waha Oil Company, followed by the Agoco, Zueitina Oil Company, Sirte Oil Company. Oil resources, which account for 95% of export earnings, 75% of government receipts, over 50% of GDP. Oil revenues constitute the principal foreign exchange source.
Reflecting the heritage of the command economy, three quarters of employment is in the public sector, private investment remains small at around 2% of GDP. Falling world oil prices in the early 1980s and economic sanctions caused a serious decline in economic activity leading to a slow private sector rehabilitation. At 2.6 % per year on average, real GDP growth was volatile during the 1990s. Libya's GDP grew in 2001 due to high oil prices, the end of a long cyclical drought, increased foreign direct investment following the suspension of UN sanctions in 1999. Real GDP growth has been boosted by high oil revenues, reaching 4.6% in 2004 and 3.5% in 2005. Despite efforts to diversify the economy and encourage private sector participation, extensive controls of prices, credit and foreign exchange constrain growth. Although UN sanctions were suspended in 1999, foreign investment in the Libyan gas and oil sectors were curtailed due to the U. S. Iran and Libya Sanctions Act, which caps the amount foreign companies can invest in Libya yearly at $20 million.
As of May 2006, the U. S. has removed Libya from its list of states that sponsor terrorism and has normalised ties and removed sanctions. This clears the road for U. S. oil companies to exploit Libyan oil and is expected to have a positive impact on the Libyan economy. The NOC hopes to raise oil production from 1.80 million bpd in 2006 to 2 million bpd by 2008. FDI into the oil sector is, attractive due to its low cost of oil recovery, high oil quality, proximity to European markets. Most Libyan oil is sold on a term basis, including to the country's Oilinvest marketing network in Europe. Notes: 1. Energy Information Administration In November 2005, Repsol YPF discovered a significant oil deposit of light, sweet crude in the Murzuq Basin. Industry experts believe the discovery to be one of the biggest made in Libya for several years. Repsol YPF is joined by a consortium of partners including Total and Norsk Hydro. Located in Murzuq Basin is Eni's Elephant field. In October 1997, a consortium led by British company Lasmo, along with Eni and a group of five South Korean companies, announced that it had discovered large recoverable crude reserves about 800 kilometres south of Tripoli.
Lasmo estimated. Elephant began production in February 2004. WOC's Waha fields produce around 350,000 bbl/d. In 2005, ConocoPhillips and co-venturers reached an agreement with NOC to return to its operations in Libya and extend the Waha concession 25 years. ConocoPhillips operates the Waha fields with a 16.33% share in the project. NOC has the largest share of the Waha concession, additional partners include Marathon and Amerada Hess. Libya has five domestic refineries: Notes: 1. Amounts in barrels per day. In 2007, mining and hydrocarbon industries accounted for well over 95 percent of the Libyan economy. Diversification of the economy into manufacturing industries remain a long-term issue. Although agriculture is the second-largest sector in the economy, Libya depends on imports in most foods. Climatic conditions and poor soils limit farm output, domestic food production meets only about 25% of demand. Domestic conditions limit output, while higher incomes and a growing population have caused food consumption to rise.
Because of low
Muammar Gaddafi
Muammar Mohammed Abu Minyar Gaddafi known as Colonel Gaddafi, was a Libyan revolutionary and political theorist. He governed Libya as Revolutionary Chairman of the Libyan Arab Republic from 1969 to 1977, as the "Brotherly Leader" of the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya from 1977 to 2011, he was ideologically committed to Arab nationalism and Arab socialism but ruled according to his own Third International Theory. Born near Sirte, Italian Libya to a poor Bedouin family, Gaddafi became an Arab nationalist while at school in Sabha enrolling in the Royal Military Academy, Benghazi. Within the military, he founded a revolutionary cell which deposed the Western-backed Senussi monarchy of Idris in a 1969 coup. Having taken power, Gaddafi converted Libya into a republic governed by his Revolutionary Command Council. Ruling by decree, he ejected both the Italian population and Western military bases from Libya while strengthening ties to Arab nationalist governments—particularly Gamal Abdel Nasser's Egypt—and unsuccessfully advocating Pan-Arab political union.
An Islamic modernist, he introduced sharia as the basis for the legal system and promoted "Islamic socialism". He nationalized the oil industry and used the increasing state revenues to bolster the military, fund foreign revolutionaries, implement social programs emphasizing house-building and education projects. In 1973, he initiated a "Popular Revolution" with the formation of Basic People's Congresses, presented as a system of direct democracy, but retained personal control over major decisions, he outlined his Third International Theory that year. Gaddafi transformed Libya into a new socialist state called a Jamahiriya in 1977, he adopted a symbolic role in governance but remained head of both the military and the Revolutionary Committees responsible for policing and suppressing dissent. During the 1970s and 1980s, Libya's unsuccessful border conflicts with Egypt and Chad, support for foreign militants, alleged responsibility for the Lockerbie bombing in Scotland left it isolated on the world stage.
A hostile relationship developed with the United States, United Kingdom, Israel, resulting in the 1986 U. S. bombing of Libya and United Nations-imposed economic sanctions. From 1999, Gaddafi shunned Arab socialism and encouraged economic privatization, rapprochement with Western nations, Pan-Africanism. Amid the 2011 Arab Spring, protests against widespread corruption and unemployment broke out in eastern Libya; the situation descended into civil war, in which NATO intervened militarily on the side of the anti-Gaddafist National Transitional Council. The government was overthrown, Gaddafi retreated to Sirte, only to be captured and killed by NTC militants. A divisive figure, Gaddafi dominated Libya's politics for four decades and was the subject of a pervasive cult of personality, he was decorated with various awards and praised for his anti-imperialist stance, support for Arab—and African—unity, for significant improvements that his government brought to the Libyan people's quality of life.
Conversely, Islamic fundamentalists opposed his social and economic reforms, he was posthumously accused of sexual abuse. He was condemned by many as a dictator whose authoritarian administration violated human rights and financed global terrorism. Muammar Mohammed Abu Minyar Gaddafi was born near Qasr Abu Hadi, a rural area outside the town of Sirte in the deserts of Tripolitania, western Libya, his family came from a small uninfluential tribal group called the Qadhadhfa, who were Arabized Berber in heritage. His mother was named Aisha, his father, Mohammad Abdul Salam bin Hamed bin Mohammad, was known as Abu Meniar. Nomadic Bedouins kept no birth records; as such, Gaddafi's date of birth is not known with certainty, sources have set it in 1942 or the spring of 1943, although his biographers David Blundy and Andrew Lycett noted that it could have been pre-1940. His parents' only surviving son, he had three older sisters. Gaddafi's upbringing in Bedouin culture influenced his personal tastes for the rest of his life.
From childhood, Gaddafi was aware of the involvement of European colonialists in Libya. According to claims, Gaddafi's paternal grandfather, Abdessalam Bouminyar, was killed by the Italian Army during the Italian invasion of 1911. At World War II's end in 1945, Libya was occupied by French forces. Although Britain and France intended on dividing the nation between their empires, the General Assembly of the United Nations declared that the country be granted political independence. In 1951, the UN created the United Kingdom of Libya, a federal state under the leadership of a pro-Western monarch, who banned political parties and centralized power in his monarchy. Gaddafi's earliest education was of a religious nature, imparted by a local Islamic teacher. Subsequently, moving to nearby Sirte to attend elementary school, he progressed through six grades in four years. Education in Libya was not free, but his father thought it would benefit his son despite the financial strain. During the week Gaddafi slept in a mosque, at weekends walked 20 miles to visit his parents.
At school, Gaddafi was bullied for being a Bedouin, but was proud
Ghadames
This article is about the town. Ghadames or Ghadamis is an oasis Berber town in the Nalut District of the Tripolitania region in northwestern Libya; the indigenous language of Ghadames is a Berber language. Ghadamès, known as'the pearl of the desert', stands in an oasis, it is an outstanding example of a traditional settlement. Its domestic architecture is characterized by a vertical division of functions: the ground floor used to store supplies. Ghadames lies 462 km to the southwest of Tripoli, near the borders with Algeria and Tunisia. Ghadames borders Illizi Province and Tataouine Governorate, Tunisia; the oasis has a population of around 10,000 Berbers. The old part of the town, surrounded by a city wall, has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage site; each of the seven clans that used to live in this part of the town had its own district, of which each had a public place where festivals could be held. Ghadames has a hot desert climate with long hot summers as average high temperature is around 41 °C in July, the hottest month of the year as well as short, warm winters.
The town is receives little precipitation throughout the year as average annual precipitation is only 33.1 mm. It has been suggested, based on archaeological evidence, that this area has been settled since the 4th millennium B. C. and is one of the oldest pre-Saharan settlements. Its situation near a water source in the middle of a desert would have made it an important spot for anyone seeking to settle in the area; the first written records about Ghadames date from the Roman period when the settlement was known as Cydamus, from which modern Ghadames derives its name. In the 1st century BC, the Roman proconsul Lucius Cornelius Balbus invaded Cydamus during the reign of emperor Augustus. A permanent Roman garrison was established during the reign of Septimius Severus, the emperor may have visited the settlement around AD 202. However, the Romans withdrew from the area a few decades during the Crisis of the Third Century. During the 6th century, a Bishop lived in the oasis, after the population had been converted to Christianity by Byzantine missionaries.
It became a stronghold of the Donatist heresy until its conquest by Muslim Arabs. During the late 7th century, Ghadames was ruled by the Muslim Arabs; the population converted to Islam and Ghadames played an important role as base for the Trans-Saharan trade until the 19th century. The etymology of the name Ghadames is closely linked with its history, it is believed that the name Ghadames is connected to the name of the ancient Berber tribe of Tidamensi, a tribe from Fezzan. It is believed that the name Tidamensi was corrupted by the invading Romans to form the name Cydamus, which in turn gave way to the name Ghadames. In October 1911, shortly after the Italo-Turkish War broke out, Ghadames was occupied by Italian soldiers marching from Tripoli. However, Italy's hold on the city was interrupted several times until June 1915, when a general rising throughout Libya caused the Italian garrison to retreat from Ghadames to the stronghold of Tripoli. Effective control over the city was restored in December 1918, but rebellion throughout Fezzan kept Ghadames in a state of emergency until 1923.
In 1943, Free French forces occupied Ghadames and its surrounding area in the southern part of the former Italian colony of Libya, forming the Military Territory of Fezzan-Ghadames until Libyan independence in 1951. Ghadames was made the territory's capital during this time. In the 1970s, the government built new houses outside of the old part of the town. However, many inhabitants return to the old part of the town during the summer, as its architecture provides better protection against the heat. During the Libyan Civil War, National Transitional Council forces entered the town on 30 August 2011, under siege by NTC forces since the beginning of the conflict; until 2011, the city was under control by independent Tuareg troops. After being captured by the Libyan National Army, the entire Tuareg community was forced to flee in an act of ethnic cleansing; the old town, inscribed in 1986 as a UNESCO World Heritage site, was de-populated of its inhabitants throughout the 1990s, leaving the old buildings at risk of collapse due to a lack of maintenance.
It has been listed on the List of World Heritage in Danger since 2016 among four other sites in Libya, because of damage caused by the Libyan Civil War affecting the country and the threat of further damage it poses. Ghadames Museum Ghadames Airport List of cities in Libya Edmond Bernet. "Ghadames". En Tripolitaine: Voyage a Ghadames. Paris: Fontemoing. Lafi "Ghadamès cité-oasis entre empire ottoman et colonisation"" in Federico Cresti, La Libia tra Mediterraneo e mondo islamico, Giuffrè, pp.55-70, 2006 Falling Rain Genomics, Inc.: "Ghadamis, Libya" Azzouz, Intisar "Ghadames, Libya" In Safran, Linda Places of Public Gathering in Islam: proceedings of seminar five in the series Architectural transformations in the Islamic world, held in Amman, May 4–7 Aga Khan Award for Architecture, Philadelphia, OCLC 7208199.
Central Bank of Libya
The Central Bank of Libya is the monetary authority in Libya. It has the status of an autonomous corporate body; the law establishing the CBL stipulates that the objectives of the central bank shall be to maintain monetary stability in Libya and to promote the sustained growth of the economy in accordance with the general economic policy of the state. The headquarters of the Central Bank are in Tripoli. However, to make the CBL services more accessible to commercial banks and public departments located far from the headquarters; the CBL has three branches, located in Benghazi and Sirte. In March 2011, the governor of CBL, Farhat Bengdara and defected to the rebelling side of the Libyan Civil War, having first arranged for the bulk of external Libyan assets to be frozen and unavailable to the Gaddafi government; as of September 2011, the bank's governor is Kassem Azzuz. The CBL was founded in 1955 under Act no. 30 started its operations on 1 April 1956 under the name of National Bank of Libya, to replace the Libyan Currency committee, established by the United Nations and other supervising countries in 1951 to ensure the well being of the weak and poor Libyan economy.
The primary aims of the Libyan Currency committee were to assist Libya in creating a unified currency in all three provinces. The Bank's name was changed to Bank of Libya under Act no. 4 to its current name Central Bank of Libya after the 1969 coup d'état. The governing structures of the Bank are: The Governor; the Deputy Governor. The Governing Council. Management of the general affairs of the Bank within the policies of the country is entrusted to a board of directors consisting of the governor as chairman, deputy governor as vice-chairman, six other members, who represent other financial and economic interests; the tasks of the governor include: Direct the Bank and preside over the governing council and executive commission. Take primary responsibility for the Bank fulfilling its responsibilities and for doing so in a lawful manner; the governor has ultimate authority over bank contracts and other legal documents The Bank's representation before tribunals of justice. The representation of the Bank in all its relations with other parties.
This is list a governors of The Central Bank of Libya since its establishment. |29 يناير 2018 The Bank endured twice an administration split, first during the first civil war from September 2014 on, as a result of the ongoing civil war. The functions of the CBL have grown since its establishment, now include the following: Issuing and regulating banknotes and coins in Libya. Maintaining and stabilizing the Libyan currency Internally and Locally. Maintaining and managing the official reserves of gold and foreign exchange. Regulating the quantity and cost of credit to meet the requirements of economic growth and monetary stability. Taking appropriate measures to deal with foreign or local economic and financial problems. Acting as a banker and fiscal agent to the state and public entities. Advising the state on the formulation and implementation of financial and economic policy. Supervising foreign exchange. Carrying out any other functions or transactions performed by central banks, as well as any tasks charged to it under the Law of banking and currency and credit or any international convention to which the state is a party.
Goznak
Joint Stock Company "Goznak" is a Russian joint-stock company responsible for research and development as well as manufacturing security products including banknotes, stamps, ID-cards, secure documents, state orders and medals, as well as providing secure IT services. It incorporates 7 factories and 1 R&D institute involved in different stages of the development, manufacturing cycle. Goznak combines paper and printing facilities which manufacture banknotes, government bonds, letters of credit, savings-bank books, lottery tickets, postage stamps, blanks of passports, birth certificates, marriage licenses, as well as publications of high artistic value and special and high-grade paper. Goznak controls mints, which manufacture circulation coins, orders and commemorative medals, it manufactures credit cards, banking cards, phone cards. Goznak not only prints Russian money, but prints banknotes of foreign countries, including Lebanon, Guatemala, Rwanda and others. During the reign of Peter the Great, the Russians established the Saint Petersburg Mint in 1724, which would centralize coinage in Russia and begin to produce different kinds of badges and medals used for decoration.
In 1818, on September 4 in Saint-Petersburg the Expedition of Storing State Papers was founded by the Decree of Emperor Alexander I under the authority of the Ministry of Finance. In 1838, a Russian academician Moritz von Jacobi, employed at this Department, used his invention of galvanoplastics to produce printing plates for the first time in printing history. In the 1890s, an employee of the Department Ivan Orlov invented and developed a new printing method called "Orlov's printing", he built multicolor printing presses, which would serve as a prototype for modern multicolor printing presses. Orlov's machines were still in use in some countries in the 1970s. After the October Revolution of 1917, the Department of State Currency Production was reorganized and renamed Goznak. Although the initial scope of Goznak had been the production of bank notes, the production of coins was added to its field of operation in 1941, when the Leningrad mint was taken over by Goznak. Goznak had its own All-union Research Institute in Moscow.
In the 1920s, a Goznak employee and a prominent Soviet sculptor Ivan Shadr created the first samples of the Soviet money. In the 1950s – 1960s, an employee of the Goznak’s Moscow Printing Factory V. A. Oleynik invented an original money counting device, which would be further developed by other workers of the All-union Research Institute. Thus, all of the paper and printing factories and mints of the Goznak were equipped with the counting machines. After the revolution of 1917 the Saint-Petersburg Mint of Goznak was renamed into the Leningrad Mint, its original name was returned in the 1990s. The Saint-Petersburg Paper Mill of Goznak was called the Leningrad Paper Mill during the Soviet period. In 1997, Perm Printing Factory launched telecards for public telephones. During the first year of the new site more than one million cards were produced; the quality of cards is in line with the international standard. In 1999, the Moscow Mint, for the first time in the history of Russia won the tender for the manufacture of currency for India.
In October 1999, they signed an agreement with India for the manufacture of copper-nickel coins two and five rupees. In 2006 the Association of the State Companies "Goznak" has been transformed into the Federal State Unitary Enterprise "Goznak". Goznak includes 8 branches: 2 Printing Factories, 2 Paper Mills, 2 Mints, Printing House and R&D Institute. At the beginning of 2006, the Moscow Printing Factory of Goznak started with the personalization of the first ePassport; the personalization center is capable of processing of more than 5 million passports per year. The personalization of the new generation of passports with the electronic data carrier is carried by laser engraving at the Branches of Goznak – at the Main Personalization Center at the Moscow Printing Factory and at the Multifunctional Personalization Center at the Moscow Printing Works. On March 3, 2008 Goznak has become a strategic enterprise of Russia. On June 5, 2014 the Russian President Putin signed a decree on the transformation of the company from the status of Federal State Unitary Enterprise to Open Joint Stock Company "Goznak", 100% of, owned by the federal government.
JSC "Goznak" incorporates eight branches: Moscow Mint Perm Printing Factory Saint Petersburg Paper Mill Saint Petersburg Mint Moscow Printing Factory Research Institute of Goznak Krasnokamsk Paper Mill Moscow Printing Works In honor of the 175th anniversary of the foundation of Goznak, a postage stamp of Russia was issued, by the 190th anniversary of the enterprise, a postal block and a commemorative coin of the Bank of Russia was issued. On July 30, 2018, the Bank of Russia issued commemorative silver coins in denominations of 3 rubles and 25 rubles of series "200 years since the founding of the Expedition of the Preparation of State Papers". Official website of Goznak in English
Libya
