Algeria provides $300 mln loan to Tunisia

Tunisia, which is suffering a severe economic crisis and facing a record fiscal deficit, has received a loan of $300 million from Algeria, the official gazette said on Tuesday.

The Tunisian presidential decree approving the loan indicated the agreement was made on Dec. 9.

It was announced the day before a visit to Tunis by Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune which the presidency said would strength the deep relations and expand cooperation between the two countries.

Tunisia has resumed talks with the International Monetary Fund on a rescue programme. Its economy contracted 8.8% last year and the fiscal deficit reached a record 11.4%. It expects that the budget deficit will reach 8.3% this year.

The powerful UGTT union said earlier on Tuesday it had rejected a proposed 10% cut in public sector wages from the government.

UGTT leader Noureddine Taboubi said the government, which says in public it is able to fulfil all its financial obligations, had told the union in closed meetings that it did not have the funds to pay public sector wages.

President Kais Saied said on Monday he would call a constitutional referendum next July, a year to the day after he seized broad powers in moves his opponents call a coup, and that parliamentary elections would follow at the end of 2022.

(Reuters)