"The budget deficit will increase to 9.7 percent this year, compared to previous expectations of 6.7 percent, due to the strength of the dollar and the sharp increase in grain prices," Central Bank of Tunisia Governor Marwan Al-Abbasi noted.
Fitch Ratings has estimated the budget deficit will reach 8.5 percent of gross domestic product this year.
Al-Abbasi explained that “Tunisia needs additional budget financing of five billion dinars (1.6 billion dollars) this year, because of the effects of the war in Ukraine, which will raise the financing needs this year to 25 billion dinars ($ 8.2 billion), which increases pressure on the public finances of the country, which is living under the weight of economic and political crises.”
The size of the public debt is expected to reach 84 percent of GDP this year, and will continue to rise to reach 84.7 percent in 2023. It is also likely that the current account deficit will widen to about 10 percent of GDP in 2022, compared to 6.8 percent, especially with the dinar depreciating by seven percent against the dollar.
Source (Al-Arab Newspaper of London, Edited)
