If austerity measures had not been adopted, during the first seven months of 2021, this hole would have reached 8.8 billion dinars.
Tunisia must make an additional effort to fill a budget hole of nearly 5.1 billion dinars, said economist Ridha Chkandali, in an interview with tap.
If it manages to further exploit special drawing rights and obtain financial aid, this hole could be reduced, he added.
According to him, the formation of a government as soon as possible could help Tunisia to benefit from more special drawing rights, an envelope of 775 million dinars. This is likely, he said, to reduce the budget gap to 3.1 billion dinars in 2021.
The expert also mentioned the possibility of obtaining some financial aid from “friendly countries” or of resorting to direct financing from the Central Bank. However, he noted, this option could be problematic with the International Monetary Fund.
On another aspect, Chkandali estimated that the economic and budgetary projections provided for by the 2021 state budget remain very far from reality, adding that the growth rate of 4% is impossible to achieve since the country has achieved negative rates, during the first half of 2021.
Rifi-JDD
