Tripoli government announces further salary cuts to rationalize spending in light of oil production and export stoppage attributed to Hafter

By Sami Zaptia.

London, 13 April 2020:

The internationally recognized government of Libya based in Tripoli issued a decree today reducing state-sector salaries of employees in general administrative units starting from 1^st April.

The salaries will be reduced by 20 percent and will apply to pay increases announced in decree 27 of 2011.

It will be recalled that the Tripoli government had announced a reduction of 40 percent in 2019 by virtue of decree 24/2019 of all top salaries including the President and members of the Presidential Council, the Prime Minister, ministers and deputy ministers. This also included a 30 percent reduction in the salaries of ministerial advisers.

The reductions come in the framework of the ongoing oil production and export enforced stoppage since January attributed by Tripoli to Khalifa Hafter and his allies. They also come on the back of an ongoing row between the Tripoli Central Bank of Libya (CBL) and the Tripoli government over spending rationalization and financial and monetary policy. Libya is currently spending from its reserves inherited from the Qaddafi era.

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