ABSTRACT
In September 1971 the Libyan currency was changed from the pound to the Dinar, and one-thousandth of the Dinar was the dirham. The level of imports of oil industry equipment and materials in the years 1970-6 dwindled to about half that of the late 1960s, and this is doubtless a reflection of lower exploration and development activities. In the field of employment, it was clear even in the 1960s that indigenous manpower resources were inadequate to match the needs of a rapidly expanding oil industry and economy. The direct and primary contribution to Libya’s balance of payments of the oil industry’s operations before 1970 was identified as the sum total of the foreign exchange remittances of the oil companies to Libya to pay costs and expenses in Libya and royalties and taxes to the Libyan Government. The movements in the determinants of the money supply suggest a major change of monetary policy in and after 1973.
