FinObservatory

Country profile / LBY

Libya

One canonical page for Libya’s financial profile, composed from the crisis atlas, IMF sovereign-debt data, the World Bank GFDD and Global Findex, the BIS credit, policy-rate and exchange-rate statistics, the external accounts (IMF balance of payments and international investment position, official reserves, capital-account openness and remittances), and the Penn World Table’s population and GDP scale. Each section links to its dedicated module and cites its own primary source; sections appear only where Libya has data.

Latest government debt
142.7%
2017 (Central govt (IMF GDD))
Financial crises on record
1
0 banking, 1 currency, 0 sovereign
Private credit by banks
7.1%
GFDD, 2021
BIS credit-cycle data
Not covered
BIS ~44-economy set only

Cross-border banking exposure: how much BIS-reporting banks lend to Libya.

Economic scale

Libya is outside the Penn World Table’s 185-economy coverage (mostly small territories and micro-states), so no population or GDP-scale series is available here.

Source: Penn World Table 11.0 (Feenstra, Inklaar and Timmer 2015). License: CC BY 4.0. Methodology

Crisis history

Full crisis atlas →

1 episode between 2002 and 2002. Consecutive crisis years are merged into episodes (gaps of up to two years bridged); each links to its episode page.

BankingCurrencySovereign debt

Source: Global Macro Database 2026_06 | Reinhart-Rogoff (HBS BFFS) | Laeven & Valencia (2020, 2026) | ECB/ESRB Financial Crises Database. License: non-commercial research (inherits GMD / JST); cite all five chronologies. Methodology

Financial depth and soundness

Depth (private credit, deposits) and soundness (Z-score, nonperforming loans, concentration) from the World Bank GFDD. GFDD values end in 2021 (the dataset’s last release year); a flat recent tail is the data stopping, not the sector standing still.

Private credit by banks
7.0621
% of GDP
0.0020.040.060.080.019632021
Bank deposits
32.921
% of GDP
0.0010020030019632021
Bank Z-score
32.120
index (higher = sounder)
0.0020.040.060.080.020002020
Nonperforming loans
No data for this country
Bank concentration
96.520
% assets, top 3 banks
60.080.010020002020

Source: World Bank Global Financial Development Database (Sep 2022). License: CC BY 4.0. Values end 2021 (GFDD's last release year). Methodology

Financial inclusion

How much of the adult population (age 15+) is inside the financial system, from the World Bank Global Findex 2025: account ownership, digital payments, and formal saving and borrowing. Findex is a survey run in waves (2011, 2014, 2017, 2021, 2024), so each card is a wave sparkline with the latest reading and the change since the first wave available for Libya.

Account ownership
33.12024
% age 15+
2 waves, 2017-2024-32.5 pp since 2017
Made or received a digital payment
23.52024
% age 15+
2 waves, 2017-2024-8.4 pp since 2017
Saved at a financial institution
15.92024
% age 15+
2 waves, 2017-2024-1.2 pp since 2017
Borrowed from a financial institution
12.22024
% age 15+
2 waves, 2017-2024+3.8 pp since 2017

Source: World Bank Global Findex Database 2025. License: CC BY 4.0. Survey waves; percent of adults age 15+. Methodology

Credit cycle

Libya is not in the BIS credit-statistics reporting set (a fixed group of around 44 advanced and major emerging economies), so no credit-to-GDP gap, debt-service ratio, or property-price series is available here.

Source: BIS credit and debt-service statistics | BIS residential property prices. License: free with "Source: BIS" attribution. Methodology

Policy rate and exchange rate

Libya is in neither the BIS central-bank policy-rate set (48 economies) nor the BIS real broad effective-exchange-rate set (63 economies), so no policy-rate or exchange-rate series is available here.

Source: BIS central bank policy rates | BIS effective exchange rates. License: free with "Source: BIS" attribution. Methodology

External accounts

Libya’s external position: the current-account balance (IMF, percent of GDP), the net international investment position and total official reserves (both shown as US-dollar levels, in billions, because the IMF IIP and World Bank reserve series carry dollar values rather than ratios), the degree of capital-account openness (the Chinn-Ito index, 0 closed to 1 open), and remittance inflows. A positive current account or net-IIP reading is a surplus/creditor position; a negative one is a deficit/debtor position. Each panel appears only where Libya has that series.

Current-account balance
-4.4424
% of GDP
-50.00.0050.019802024
Net international investment position
No data for this country
Total reserves
10525
US$ billion
0.0050.010015019602025
Capital-account openness
0.162023
index, 0 = closed, 1 = open
annual, 1970 to 2023
Remittance inflows
0.0162006
US$ billion
annual, 2000 to 2006

Remittance inflows are shown as external-flow context (household income received from abroad), not a FinObservatory risk score.

Source: IMF Balance of Payments and IIP Statistics | World Bank, Total reserves (FI.RES.TOTL.CD). License: IMF and World Bank, free with attribution ("Source: IMF"; World Bank reserves CC BY 4.0). Current account and net IIP: IMF BOP/IIP, to 2025. Reserves: World Bank FI.RES.TOTL.CD, to 2025. Methodology

Source: Chinn-Ito index of capital-account openness (Chinn and Ito 2006). License: research use with citation only (Chinn-Ito); not for commercial redistribution. Capital-account openness ends 2023. Methodology

Source: World Bank / KNOMAD Migration and Remittances Data. License: CC BY 4.0 (World Bank / KNOMAD). Remittance inflows end 2024; shown as context, not a risk score. Methodology

Latest government debt 142.7% of GDP (2017, Central govt (IMF GDD)). Peak 192.8% in 2016. This is 62.0 points above the 80.7% median at which 2000+ sovereign crises began (a comparison, not a prediction).

Latest debt
142.7%
2017
Peak debt
192.8%
2016
Sovereign crises
0
none on record

Source: IMF Global Debt Database | IMF World Economic Outlook. License: IMF, free with "Source: IMF" attribution. Methodology

Reading this profile

  • This page composes existing FinObservatory layers; it introduces no new data. Every figure is reproducible from the source cited in its section. See the methodology for the composition and each source’s coverage and staleness.
  • The layers stop at different dates: the World Bank GFDD depth and soundness series end 2021, but the IMF FSI soundness panel is current (annual through 2024–2025 where reported); the Global Findex inclusion series are surveyed in waves and reach 2024; the crisis chronologies end around 2016–2021; IMF debt runs to 2024; the Penn World Table runs 1950–2023; and the BIS statistics are the most current (credit through 2025, residential property to 2026Q1, and the policy rate and effective exchange rate into 2026 where reported). The external accounts reach 2025 (IMF balance-of-payments and reserves), 2024 (remittance inflows) and 2023 (capital-account openness). A quiet recent tail in one section can simply be where that source stops.
  • Sections are shown only where Libya has data. An absent section means the underlying dataset does not cover this country, not that the value is zero.