Agency: Tunisian banks are lending the government 250 million euros to finance the 2021 budget

A senior Tunisian official told Reuters on Friday that Tunisian banks have agreed to lend the government 250 million euros to finance the 2021 budget.

The official added in a statement to “Reuters” that the government needs about 19.5 billion Tunisian dinars (7.2 billion dollars) to finance this year’s budget deficit, including five billion dollars from foreign loans and 2.2 billion dollars from the local market.

The budget sets the payment of debts due this year at 16 billion dinars, up from 11 billion dinars in 2020.

Tunisia is facing unprecedented economic hardship, with a fiscal deficit of 11.5 percent of GDP in 2020, the highest level in nearly four decades.

The 2021 budget aims to reduce the fiscal deficit to 6.6 percent.

Source: “Reuters”

Follow RT on