Tunisia’s total external debt stock reached around 132 billion dinars in 2021 (around $41.6 million), according to the latest World Bank (WB) “International Debt Report 2022”, released in December 2022.
Tunisia is facing “an alarming indebtedness,” said economist Ezzeddine Saidane, who explained that the deterioration of the country’s economic prospects is due to “the poor management of the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the war between Russia and Ukraine”.
“It was an exceptional situation managed by a political decision: the lockdown, yet it required the injection of additional liquidity to protect the economy and the job market. This was not done and resulted in economic stagnation and the disappearance of thousands of businesses and jobs,” says the economist.
Regarding the 2023 state budget, the economist finds it “devoid of spirit and economic effect”, recalling that a budget should be a tool for economic recovery “which is not the case” with this budget.
The economist reports an “explosion of the budget” because its volume did not increase by only 14.5% compared to 2022, but rather by 32%”. The figure of 14.5% was advanced on the basis of an erroneous comparison between an initial budget volume and an additional budget volume when the comparison must be made between two initial budget volumes.
Saidane stressed that there is still hope and “rescue is still possible provided that decision-makers show strong will and patriotism”.
According to the economist, “the only solution consists in stopping the haemorrhage first by reviewing the model of State expenditure and by engaging the country in a vast operation to rescue the economy”.
Source: Tap News Agency
