A consignment of newly printed Libyan dinars arrived at Tripoli’s Mitiga Airport late last month in the most recent British shipment destined for the Central Bank of Libya (CBL).
The shipment is believed to be only part – no more than 150 million Libyan dinars – of a total consignment of 116 billion Libyan dinars ($108 billion Cdn.). These banknotes, produced in Britain in 2013 and now distributed to banks across Libya, arrived earlier than expected after the CBL pushed the date of issue forward in an attempt to mitigate the country’s ongoing cash shortage. It’s still unknown if this latest shipment will help pull Libya out of its financial woes.
The CBL previously stated the remaining consignments were expected to arrive by July. It’s expected to continue phasing out the previous Gaddafi-era banknote series; however, that’s also uncertain as the cash shortage, rearing its head into every part of the country’s recent financial history, could cause delays here as well.