Through its spokesperson, Gerry Rice, the international financial institution announced that it had received a request for assistance from the new Tunisian government.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said Thursday, having received a request for assistance from the new Tunisian government and that technical discussion are underway with Tunis to set the country’s economic priorities.
This is what emerges from the remarks made by the spokesperson for the international financial institution, Gerry Rice, during a press briefing in Washington.
Tunisia is requesting assistance from the IMF for the fourth time in 10 years.
“We recently received from the Tunisian authorities, a request for a new program supported by the IMF”, declared Gerry Rice, assuring that “the financial institution will continue to be a strong partner of Tunisia”.
“For the time being, the discussions between the IMF and Tunis are of a technical nature and aim to examine the possibility of launching a new financing program for the benefit of Tunisia,” he continued. In other words, the international financial institution will review the details of the request made by the Bouden government as well as its action plan.
The IMF spokesperson stressed that “the discussions focus on Tunisia’s economic priorities, and the reforms to be put in place to alleviate the current crisis prevailing in the country”, without however indicating a precise timetable for this. about.
The African Development Bank had indicated in its report entitled “Economic Outlook in North Africa 2021”, that Tunisia’s external debt stood at 97.2% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2020, i.e. the rate highest in North Africa.
Tunisia’s public debt amounted to 99.3 billion dinars ($ 35.7 billion) at the end of June or 81.5% of GDP.
Tunisia is seeking a new loan of $ 4 billion from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), as new negotiations have started since mid-May.
In April 2016, the Executive Board of the IMF had agreed to grant Tunisia a loan of 2.8 billion dollars over 4 years, from which it had received only 1.6 billion dollars, and this, in due to the inability of the government to implement all the structural reforms planned by the international financial institution.
