Tunisia Says It Has Paid Off All 2023 Domestic And Foreign Debts

Tunisia’s Finance Minister, Sihem Boughdiri, announced on Monday that the country has successfully settled all its domestic and external debts for the year 2023, thus dispelling doubts of a possible default.

Amid a challenging economic environment for the North African country struggling with a shortage of external funding while trying to fix its financial problems, Tunisia is set to allocate $4 billion in 2024 towards paying off its foreign debts, which is 40% more than it was in 2023.

Economists argue that Tunisia depends heavily on domestic loans to offset its external debts, leading to a substantial decrease in liquidity and a diminished role of banks in financing the economy. They predict that things would be very tough this year due to the increasing foreign debt and the recurrent reliance on internal loans.

Projections from the government indicate that the accumulated public debt is expected to reach approximately 140 billion dinars ($45.17 billion) in 2024, representing about 79.8% of the GDP, compared to the previous figure of 127 billion dinars.

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