Tunisia-BCT chooses to delay payment of business and professional loans

Written by Mohamed Ben Abderrazek :

The Board of Directors of the Central Bank of Tunisia (BCT) published today, December 30, 2020, a press release in which it remarked that at the national level and despite indications of progressive recovery, after lifting the lockdown, economic activity remains to be affected by the pandemic.

The issuing institute recorded that the constraints imposed by the principal partner nations are limiting the recovery of exporting industrial sectors.

On another level, the BCT perceived a striking reduction in the inflation rate in November 2020 to approximately 4.9% due to the easing of the price level of all products, particularly food products.

As for the chief indicators of underlying inflation, the increase in prices “excluding framed and fresh products” in November 2020 kept its level recorded the previous month, 4.9%.

Concerning the external sector, the BCT stressed the vital slump in the current account deficit during the first eleven months of 2020, to return to 6.2% of GDP, versus 7.9% during the same period of the previous year.

This effect is largely attributable to the reduction of the trade deficit in connection in particular to the weakening of domestic demand and the slowdown in economic activity on top of the decline in the deficit of the energy balance.

The BCT valued, among other matters, Gaining a good level of labour income (+ 7%) which, according to it, made it permissible to cover part of the deficit notwithstanding the visible drop in tourism revenues of 63.9%.

From these diverse angles and in view of the steadfast damage following the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Board of Directors of the issuing institute has chosen to lengthen the period of delay of the maturities of credits allowed under the 1st paragraph -article 2 of Circular BCT N ° 2020-06, till the close of September 2021 with the addition of the maximum duration for granting exceptional financing till the end of December 2021 in addition to giving banks the opportunity of granting this financing to non-resident companies established in Tunisia subject to the conditions provided for in Circular N ° 1999-09.