Tunisia-Mourad Hattab presents reasons for decline in public finance deficit and inflation remaining high [Video]

In a statement to Tunisie Numérique, economist Mourad Hattab remarked on the World Bank’s report concerning the drop in Tunisia’s public finance deficit in 2024, which was issued last Friday, April 26, 2024. Hattab stated that this report came under the title “Conflicts and Debt in North Africa and Middle East” and noted that the Tunisian state’s deficit will fall from 8% in 2024 to 5.6% of the gross domestic product.

Hattab attributed this decline to several circumstantial and structural factors, underlining that this issue is anticipated, because the Tunisian state’s revenues are improving, particularly budget revenues, which according to the Ministry of Finance attained 49 billion dinars in 2024, an upsurge of 8.4% compared to 2023, and 51.7 billion dinars, an increase of 5.3% in 2025, and 56.2 billion dinars, an increase of 8.7% in 2026.

The economist added that this coincides with the start of controlling public expenditures, whose rate of growth has become weaker, as the expected rate of increase will be approximately 6.7% in 2024, and public expenditures will reach 59.8 billion dinars before dropping at the rate of increase at a weak rate in 2025 to reach only 2.4%, to be estimated at 61.6 billion dinars and 63.8 billion dinars in 2026, an increase of 4.3%.

Our speaker stated that these different factors will be reflected in the state’s budget deficit, which will see a prominent improvement in the coming years, according to the Ministry of Finance’s estimates, assuming that the deficit will reach only 6.6% of the gross domestic product, or 11.5 billion dinars, by the end of 2024.

He furthermore said that the World Bank had forecasted in its report that the inflation rate would remain relatively high and would be in the scope of 7.8%, emphasising that the inflation rate in Tunisia remained somewhat controlled compared to similar countries in the Middle East and North Africa, such as Egypt, where it reached 30%, and Turkey  40%.

Hattab pointed out that the significant point today is the improvement in numbers at the level of the external sector in Tunisia, as it can be said that it has fully recovered and no deficit was registered throughout the first three-quarters of the current year.