India, April 12 -- Libya's two rival legislative bodies have approved the country's first unified state budget in more than a decade, its central bank said in a statement on Saturday.

The oil-producing North African country has been divided since a 2014 civil war that spawned two administrations in the west and east. Its last unified national budget was agreed in 2013.

The central bank said the approval of the budget by the two rival legislative chambers could help strengthen financial stability, marking an important move toward ending years of financial division.

The two legislative chambers are the eastern-based House of Representatives (HoR) that was elected in 2014 and the High Council of State in the west which was formed as part ...