Tunisia Settles All Its Domestic and Foreign Debts for 2023

Tunisian Finance Minister Sihem Boughediri announced on Monday that "Tunisia has managed to repay all of its domestic and foreign debts for 2023 despite the immense pressures on its public finances, which dispels doubts about a potential default." An official document revealed that Tunisia is set to repay four billion dollars of external debts in 2024, an increase of 40 percent compared to 2023, amidst a scarcity of external funding available to the government as it struggles to reform its troubled public finances. Economists state that Tunisia has heavily relied on new domestic loans to pay off its foreign debts, significantly reducing liquidity and contributing to a decrease in banks' financing of the economy. They believe the situation will be extremely challenging this year due to rising external debts and the difficulties of repeatedly resorting to domestic loans. The government anticipates that the accumulated public debt will reach approximately 140 billion dinars (45.17 billion dollars) in 2024, about 79.8 percent of GDP, up from 127 billion dinars.