Italy returned to being the first commercial partner of Libya in 2021, with an overall exchange value of 6.8 billion euros, an increase of 160 percent over the previous year, said the Italian Trade Agency.
Italy today boasts a market share of 17.25 per cent in Libya, ahead of China (11.61 per cent), Germany (9.16 per cent), Spain (8.17 per cent) and Turkey (7.46 per cent), according to data processed by the agency.
In 2020, the year of the outbreak of the COVID-19-19 pandemic, Turkey was the first partner of Libya with an exchange of just under 3 billion euros.
In 2019, on the other hand, China was at the top with bilateral trade worth approximately 6.5 billion euros, which makes the Italy-Libya trade in 2021 higher than the pre-pandemic period.