The economic cost of the Libyan conflict

On 28 September, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) published a report assessing the impact of the Libyan conflict on the Libyan economy and the economies of neighbouring countries, including Egypt, the Sudan and Tunisia, with which Libya has extensive economic relations in terms of trade, investment, and migrant workers. The report estimates that Libya’s war has caused a loss of economic potential estimated at 783.2 billion Libyan dinars from 2011 to the present day, as well as significantly damaging regional cooperation. It recommends that Libya’s peace process has a reconstruction and recovery plan based on transparent economic governance, sector-specific rehabilitation and boosting growth and investment through emergency short-term reconstruction programmes and medium and long-term institutional reform.

Read the report here.