Cash-strapped Tunisia to borrow $7bn more in 2022
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Loading... - Alexander Klassen
- 29 Dec 2021
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The 2022 finance law boosts spending by over 3 percent year on year to 57.3 billion dinars ($19.8 billion), Finance Minister Sihem Boughdiri said.
The deficit is expected to hit some 6.2 percent of gross domestic product, she told reporters.
The government will borrow almost 20 billion dinars to cover 2022 expenditures, bringing government debt to 82.6 percent of GDP.
Around two-thirds of the figure is to come from foreign lenders, and the remainder from domestic sources, Boughdiri said.
Tunisia has suffered years of economic woes exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic, with high inflation and unemployment at around 18 percent. Foreign debt in 2021 hit 100 percent of GDP.
In order to replenish state coffers, the authorities are also hoping to reach a bailout deal with the International Monetary Fund, Boughdiri confirmed.
“Negotiations with the IMF will restart at the beginning of 2022,” Boughdiri said.
She said 80 experts had formulated “a program of reforms in several sectors.” Read More…
