The political economy of the NATO Libya

"Tarhouni's influence over future economic policy remains to be seen but he said he would be strongly recommending a move away from an economy in which, he said, he had been surprised to find on his return home how many Libyans received state funds.  Since many of the six million population now seemed to expect their oil-rich government to increase, rather than reduce, the level of subsidies and welfare payments, the new leadership faced a challenge of managing those expectations.  "The private sector should be the engine for the future economic development of Libya," he said.  "The challenges will be to decrease the size of government and to give the private sector more room ... What makes it challenging is that right now the level of expectations of the people are very high -- and that the government will deliver more rather than less ... So it's a challenge. But Gaddafi's dead, so everything else can be managed.""  Notice that the notion that Libyan people receive state funds is offensive to Mr. Tarhouni.