Tunisia will need to borrow more than 20 billion dinars to fill the 2021 state budget, the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights (FTDES) said in a recent study on “the crisis of public finance in 2020 and 2021.”
According to the FTDES, Tunisia must choose, today, between two alternatives: “continue to resort to international donors”, including the International Monetary Fund (IMF), requiring it to submit to conditions that are difficult to achieve and which could be detrimental to national sovereignty; or “relying on itself” (its own resources) to improve state’s own resources, through launch of urgent and exceptional measures.
In this regard, the study recommends accelerating the promulgation of the Economic Emergency Law, implementing actions to control currency smugglers, changing banknotes (to reveal illegally acquired wealth), and further suspending the import of luxury goods.
It also recommended fighting against parallel trade, revising the trade agreements concluded with certain countries that have led to an increase in the trade deficit, encouraging the Tunisian expatriates to open foreign currency accounts and participate in borrowing from the state, and promoting activities with high added value to accelerate the economic recovery.
In the same context, the FTDES considered that it is imperative, in the medium term, to design a new economic model, able to meet the aspirations of the population and overcome the current difficulties.
“This new model must be developed within the framework of a participatory approach. It should be based on a clear distribution of tasks between all stakeholders, within the framework of balanced conventional relations,” the Forum noted, recommending that this model should ensure sustainable and ecological development.
Concurrently, it called for the current challenges facing the Tunisian economy to be addressed. These include overcoming political tensions, strengthening the pillars of development and growth, and dealing with the phenomenon of the parallel economy.
Source: TAP News Agency