ABSTRACT
Except for oil wealth, the story of the Libyan economy is not a story of success. Libya is a land with few natural resources other than petroleum, in which limited agricultural areas have remained relatively underdeveloped, and where severely limited water resources have been chronically abused. Despite a dramatic improvement in the average living standard since the 1969 revolution, owing to the regime’s distributive policies, none of the country’s fundamental economic problems have changed for the better. Libya remains a country with little industrial infrastructure and very limited supplies of technological and managerial skills. The mid- to long-term economic prognosis is very uncertain given the downward trend in international oil prices and the lack of a substitute for oil as a source of national income.
