Tunisia's 2021 budget faces the challenges of the increases in oil prices in global markets, as the budget relied on an assumption not exceeding $45 as a reference price for oil throughout the year, while the surprise was public. As prices witnessed a significant increase with the beginning of the new year, with expectations that they would exceed the price of $60 per barrel.
In recent days, prices have exceeded $55, and expected to rise in the coming months, which will put forward the hypothesis of amendments to the Finance Law since the beginning of the year.
In this regard, the World Bank revealed that Tunisia ended last year with a growth contraction estimated at 9.1 percent, and is expected to record during the current year a growth of about 5.8 percent and a growth rate of 2 percent during the year 2022. The Tunisian economy is expected to face additional challenges by registering an increase in the level of unemployment by 3%, to stabilize within 21.1% of the total active population.
In parallel, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) expected that the Tunisian economy would witness a sharp contraction ranging between 3.8 and 7.1 percent, revealing that Tunisia was affected by the deep recession recorded by European countries as the main partner.
"ESCWA" expected that both Tunisian exports and imports would grow by 13 percent during the current year, after an expected decline of 17.3 percent for exports and 19.2 percent for imports during the past year.
Source (Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper, Edited)
