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Libya Accommodates to Lower Oil Revenues: Economic and Political Adjustments

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2009

J. A. Allan
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Extract

Libya enjoyed steadily rising oil revenues after 1960 and became a significant member of the world's trading community. By 1980, oil revenues were over US $20 bn and these enabled development spending to approach US $10 bn per year as well as permitting large allocations to consumption, defence, and international ventures. The sums involved in the three sectors cannot be defined precisely as defence spending, and the cost of such military campaigns as the 1981 intervention in Chad are not available. Whether such data were precisely known or not, the spending options were limited to these three sectors, and trade-offs had to be made between them when financial resources became constrained. The first two sectors, development and consumption, were of great interest to the population in general, while defence and international ventures were of interest to the leadership as well as having appeal to that special constituency which populated the military establishment of the country.

Type
Articles
Information
International Journal of Middle East Studies , Volume 15 , Issue 3 , August 1983 , pp. 377 - 385
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1983

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References

NOTES

1 Allan, J. A., Libya: The Experience of Oil (London, 1981) pp. 126, 151.Google Scholar

2 Ibid., p. 122.

3 Ibid., p. 153.

4 Ibid., p. 126.

5 Qadhafi, Muammar al, The Green Book, in three parts: 1. Political organisation, 2. Economic solution, 3. Society (London, 1976–1979).Google Scholar

6 Ministry of Planning, National Accounts 1962–1971 (Tripoli, 1972), pp. 40–41.Google Scholar

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8 Fesharaki, F., “World oil available: The role of OPEC policies,” Annual Review of Energy, Vol. 6, 1981.Google Scholar

9 Speerplan-Finnmap, , Draft Regional Plan, Khalij Region (Frankfurt, 1981).Google Scholar

10 Barker, P. and McLachlan, K. S., “Development of the Libyan Oil Industry,” in Allan, J. A., Libya since Independence (London, 1982), pp. 66–74.Google Scholar

11 Boulares, H. and Kaid, K., “L'autre affaire du Sahara,” in Jeune Afrique, no 825, 22 10 1976, pp. 28–33.Google Scholar See also Allan, J. A.op cit, pp. 53–54Google Scholar and Lanne, B., Tchad-Libye: La Querelle des Frontieres (Paris, 1982).Google Scholar

12 International Court of Justice, Judgment of 24 February 1982, case concerning the continental shelf (Tunisia/Libyan Arab Jamahiriyah) (The Hague, 1982), p. 90.Google Scholar

13 Coulon, C., “La Connection Musulmane en Afrique Noire,” paper presented at a conference entitled “Political Crises on Africa's Political Frontier,” held at the School of Oriental and African Studies (London, June 1982), p. 13.Google Scholar See also papers at the same conference by Otayek, R., “La Politique Africaine, de la Libye: Le Cas du Niger and du Chad,” p. 1Google Scholar, and Buitenhuijs, R., “Le Frolinat, la Libye and la France: There is Some System in Their Madness,” p. 30Google Scholar, and Buitenhuijs, R., La Frolinat et les Révoltes Populaires du Tchad: 1965–1976 (The Hague, Paris, New York, 1978).Google Scholar