Tunisian Prime Minister Elyes Fakhfakh, during his meeting with Marouane Abassi, the Governor of Central Bank of Tunisia, called for an additional effort to reduce the cost of debt, and urged the local banking system to expedite the consideration of loan demands, and reschedule debts to support companies in this difficult economic circumstance, in addition to promoting and supporting productive investments at the expense of short-term investments.
Government data showed that the Tunisian economy suffers from a lack of financial liquidity, as a result of the decline in the private savings rate from 21 percent of GDP before 2011 to 10 percent before the Corona pandemic, and private savings are expected to decrease to less than 3 percent during the coming period, as a result of the deterioration of the purchasing power of Tunisians in general, and the deterioration of the institutions' situation as a result of the collapse of the value of the Tunisian dinar (local currency) and the high rate of inflation.
The decline in private savings leads to a decrease in the level of bank liquidity, which reflects negatively on the ability of banks to finance the public and private sectors, as well as financing state treasury bonds.
The scarcity of liquidity is measured by the volume of daily central bank intervention, which reached major levels in Tunisia, during the past year amounted to 16 billion dollars, as well as the extent of the banks' ability to finance investment and respond to requests for loans.
Source (Al-Sharq Al-Awsat newspaper, Edited)
