Libya posts deficit of $3.3 billion in first seven months

Libya posted a budget deficit of 4.5 billion dinars ($3.3 billion) in the first seven months of 2015 as oil production fell and weak oil prices weighed, the Tripoli-based central bank said on Sunday. Libya is producing less than 400,000 barrels of oil a day, a quarter of what the OPEC member used to pump until an uprising toppled Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 and tipped the North African country into turmoil.
Libya has no regular budget as two governments and parliaments controlling limited territory fight for power. Vital oil revenues are controlled by the central bank in Tripoli which is effectively running public finances.
State income - generated by oil and gas exports - was 12.4 billion Libyan dinars until the end of July, leaving a deficit of 4.5 billion dinars to cover expenditures of 16.9 billion dinars in the same period, the central bank said on its website.
The bank has frozen development projects and brought down the public wage bill to 9.7 billion dinars in the first seven months from 13.4 billion dinars in the same period a year ago, according to the figures.
At the same point last year the deficit was 14.6 billion dinars, the bank said.
Still, the Tripoli-based bank was forced to tap into its foreign reserves, perpetuating the drain on hard currency launched two years ago when oil facilities and output fell prey to armed groups and fighting between rival factions.
Libya spent $11 billion from "foreign currency money" in the first seven months, the bank said, adding that in the same period a year ago $24.8 billion had been used up.
The central bank did not give a total foreign currency reserve figure. The last published figure was $109 billion in June 2014.
It described the economic situation as dangerous, saying oil exports had fallen to 15 percent of Libya's capacities.
Libya has two central bank headquarters as both governments claim power. The official government has appointed its own central bank governor based in a new unit in the east but the Tripoli-based central bank controls oil revenues.