Libyan central bank announces end of liquidity crisis - The liquidity crisis in Libyan commercial banks will be solved over the next two weeks after the arrival of a plane in Benghazi with 65% of the quantity of local currency printed in Great Britain, the governor of the central bank of Libya (BCL), Kassim Azzouz has said. Speaking on Wednesday evening in Tripoli in a press conference broadcast by the channel Libya Al-Hora, he said the second part of those funds, about 2 billion Libyan dinars frozen by London under the aegis of the 1970 and 1973 UN Security Council resolutions, would arrive next week to be injected into the Libyan financial market.

Mr Azzouz urged traders and businessmen, as well as private individuals to deposit their money in banks, especially after the success of the Libyan revolution and the return of confidence between banks and customers.

Libyan financial and economic experts say the volume of the liquidity amount for local currency traded on the Libyan market before the crisis in the country is estimated at 14 billion dinars.

In another development, BCL governor said neither a quantity of gold had been stolen nor the currencies or assets recorded at the institution, except gold which Colonel Kadhafi’s regime had sold for liquidity meant to solve the situation in Tripoli estimated at 20% of the assets.

The new BCL governor assured Libyans and the world that the banking sector in his country was 'going well and that it overcame the crisis and all difficulties'.

'The former regime had huge funds different from what was maintained in the banking system, he said', specifying however neither the volume nor the place where the funds are.

Mr Azouz said that the new authorities would submit all banking transactions made either at the central bank or at commercial banks to revision, thanks to foreign experts in a bid to determine the manner in which the transactions have been made.

He said that the Libyan assets abroad 'are sufficient to make the government function for this year and the years to come'.

“The money we have in the country and abroad is sufficient to manage the banking process”, he said.

He said that BCL would make no change in the value of the Libyan dinar exchange value.

Pana 09/09/2011