By John Lee.
A parallel central bank in eastern Libya reportedly stepped up deliveries of new banknotes from Russia earlier this year, around the time that Khalifa Haftar launched his military offensive to capture Tripoli.
Russian customs data obtained by Reuters shows nearly 4.5 billion Libyan dinars ($3.2 billion) despatched between February and June, apparently pushing the total ordered from Russia since 2016 well above the 10 billion previously acknowledged by eastern officials.
The Tripoli-based Central Bank of Libya (CBL) has also received occasional shipments of dinars printed in the United Kingdom. The British and Russian printed banknotes are said to have slight differences in design.
(Source: Reuters)
