Tunisia-Habib Karaouli: Debt has reached very high rates

Economist and CEO of Cap Bank Habib Karaouli assessed that the debt has reached extremely high rates. In a statement to a private radio station, Karaouli said, “We have attained the point of unsustainable debt. The sole way out of the current situation is now the International Monetary Fund. ” he said.

He added that “A document will be transmitted by Tunisia to the IMF shortly, but we have no idea what reforms the administration will undertake. ” he added.

As a reminder, official data issued in October 2021 demonstrated that Tunisia’s public debt amounted to 99.3 billion dinars (35.7 billion dollars) at the ending of last June or 81.5% of GDP.

The country’s public debt reached about $ 30 billion at the end of 2020. The Ministry of the Economy, Finance and Investment Support, indicated in a report on the temporary results of the execution of the state budget at the end of June 2021, that the public debt has grown considerably over the past six years, from 52.66% of GDP, in 2015, to 81.5% of GDP, at the end of June 2021, to reach 90.13% of GDP, – or 109.2 billion of dinars – ($ 39.2 billion), at the end of this year.