Through May 2025, the Central Bank recorded $14.181 billion in foreign-currency uses against $9.492 billion in oil revenues and royalties transferred to the Bank. The difference was approximately $4.689 billion.

That gap measured pressure on the official foreign-currency pool during the period. It was not automatically a reserve loss of the same amount, because timing, other inflows and balance-sheet movements matter.

Documentary credits accounted for $6.291 billion, or 44.36% of all uses and 52.68% of the $11.943 billion channelled through commercial banks.

44.4%

of recorded foreign-currency uses went to letters of credit in the first five months of 2025.

A trade instrument with budgetary power

At this scale, a documentary credit is also a public allocation mechanism. Decisions about access to official dollars shape reserves, prices, market access and economic opportunity.

The ledger identifies beneficiaries, purposes and banks. It does not by itself prove delivery, quantity or the effect of official-rate access on local prices.

Follow both sides of the dollar account

Oil inflows and foreign-currency uses belong in one reconciled account: dollars received, dollars allocated by channel, changes in reserves and obligations carried between periods.

A monthly dashboard should publish applications, approvals, rejections, processing time, product code, bank and beneficiary, then connect execution to customs delivery.

Reconstructing the $4.689 billion difference

The arithmetic subtracts $9.492 billion in transferred oil revenue and royalties from $14.181 billion in recorded foreign-currency uses through May. It is a period-flow difference, not a complete statement of the Central Bank’s foreign assets. Other receipts, opening balances, investment income, timing and valuation can fund or change the gap.

A reserve-loss claim would require the stock of usable reserves at both dates and a bridge for every inflow, outflow and valuation movement. The article therefore uses the difference as a pressure indicator and keeps it separate from a proven decline in reserves.

Letters of credit dominated the bank channel

The $6.291 billion in documentary credits equalled 44.36% of all recorded uses and 52.68% of the $11.943 billion flowing through commercial banks. The two denominators answer different questions: the first shows the instrument’s share of the national FX account; the second shows its weight inside bank-mediated demand.

Both matter because concentration can occur by purpose, beneficiary, bank, commodity, supplier country or beneficial owner. A national total cannot show whether the allocation system was competitive or whether a small network captured a large share.

Approval, execution and delivery must stay separate

A credit can be requested, accepted, covered, amended, executed and later matched to goods. These stages can fall in different months. Mixing accepted applications with executed payments or customs arrivals creates false gaps and may double count the same operation.

The Central Bank’s reports should carry one transaction identifier and state the stage and date explicitly. Customs should return quantity, classification and release status against the same identifier, while cancellations and unused balances remain visible.

The foreign-currency budget Libya should publish

A unified monthly account would begin with oil and non-oil inflows, show government, personal, transfer and credit uses, record investment and valuation movements, and reconcile to opening and closing reserves. Fees and taxes created by the exchange system should be linked to the dinar budget.

For documentary credits, a machine-readable annex should show bank, applicant, beneficial owner, purpose, commodity, amount, destination, approval and execution. Public reconciliation with customs can be aggregated where legitimate commercial confidentiality applies.

Historical note: All figures describe the January–May 2025 reporting window. Later annual totals are updates to a different period, not replacements for this snapshot.