The Tunisian government expected that economic growth will decline by 7 percent this year, compared to expectations set during the preparation of the 2020 budget. If this percentage is recorded, it is the worst economic outcome for Tunisia since independence nearly 64 years ago.
As a result of these expectations, Elias El-Fakhfakh, the head of the Tunisian government revealed that the government has amended the state budget for the year 2020, and is working to draw up a program for economic recovery, in this context, it is expected that a proposal for a budget amendment will be presented to the Tunisian parliament before the end of next June, after the exceptional circumstances that Tunisia experienced greatly affected the various financial balances.
To overcome the repercussions of this crisis, the Tunisian authorities are counting on mobilizing their own resources and rationalizing public expenditures in the first place, while avoiding the policy of re-indulging in foreign loans.
The International Monetary Fund had expected the contraction of the Tunisian economy by the end of this year, and recorded negative growth of 4.3 percent.
It is expected that the economic recovery program to be implemented will depend on a set of priorities, the most important of which is the restoration of major government projects, the normal return to activity in the strategic phosphate sector in relation to the Tunisian budget for the hard currency it generates, and the return of production in the oil fields to their previous level.
Source (Al-Sharq Al-Awsat newspaper, Edited)
