Tunisia aims to cut public debt to 76.4% of GDP in 2027 from 82.2% in 2024

TUNIS, Nov 26 (Reuters) – Tunisia’s public debt will continue its downward trend to reach 76.4% of its gross domestic product in 2027 with the fiscal also expected to decline and reach 3.6% by then, Finance Minister Sihem Boughdiri said on Tuesday.

The North African country expects public debt to reach 82.23% of GDP by the end of 2024 and to drop to 80.46% in 2025.

Tunisia faces a severe financial crisis and has struggled to find funding since its negotiations with the International Monetary Fund for a loan stalled in 2022. That has led to a shortage of goods such as sugar, coffee, rice and tea.

Boughdiri told the parliament that the fiscal deficit will also keep declining to 3.6% in 2027 from 6.3% in 2024 and 5.5% expected next year.

She said that reaching these levels required hitting other targets, including a growth rate of around 3.2% in 2025, maintaining the stability of the dinar currency, relying more on domestic borrowing and reducing the size of the external debt. (Reporting by Tarek Amara Editing by Tomasz Janowski)

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