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Tunisia Receives €400 Million in Loans

Passengers stranded at Tunis Carthage airport wait for flights on March 16, 2020. (Getty Images)
Passengers stranded at Tunis Carthage airport wait for flights on March 16, 2020. (Getty Images)
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Tunisia Receives €400 Million in Loans

Passengers stranded at Tunis Carthage airport wait for flights on March 16, 2020. (Getty Images)
Passengers stranded at Tunis Carthage airport wait for flights on March 16, 2020. (Getty Images)

The Tunisian parliamentary finance committee has okayed five sealed deals with donors that allow it to receive loans amounting to nearly EUR400 million to implement a number of government projects.

The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) approved a EUR98.2 million loan to help finance an e-governance program and support digital transformation in administrative services. IBRD also approved a loan of EUR66.9 million to support emerging companies and SMEs.

The parliament approved the government’s request for loans, totaling EUR238 million, from the from the African Development Bank (AfDB). One loan, worth EUR108 million, will go to the Tunisian Company of Electricity and Gas (STEG) to fund the electric power transmission project this year.

A second, worth EUR100 million, will be dedicated to SMEs and active institutions in various sectors, and a third will finance the electric power transmission project in 2021.

According to the Ministry of Finance, the economy needs around TND11 billion (around USD3.8 billion) in foreign and domestic loans to fund the 2020 budget. The country’s economic woes have been compounded by the coronavirus and ensuing lockdowns.

Tunisia’s economy is expected to contract by 4.3 percent in 2020 amid the coronavirus crisis, the deepest contraction since its independence in 1956, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said earlier this month.

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Egypt Approves $91 Billion Budget for 2025/26

The sun rises in Cairo, Egypt March 25, 2025. (Reuters)
The sun rises in Cairo, Egypt March 25, 2025. (Reuters)
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Egypt Approves $91 Billion Budget for 2025/26

The sun rises in Cairo, Egypt March 25, 2025. (Reuters)
The sun rises in Cairo, Egypt March 25, 2025. (Reuters)

Egypt's cabinet approved a 4.6 trillion Egyptian pound ($91 billion) draft state budget for the financial year that will begin in July, a government statement said on Wednesday, as it continues to tighten its finances under an IMF program.

Expenditures will rise by 18% and revenue by 19% over the current 2024/25 budget. Revenue is expected to hit 3.1 trillion pounds, working out to a deficit of about 1.5 trillion pounds ($30 billion).

The increased expenditure partly reflects elevated headline inflation, which was running at an annual 12.8% in February.

Financial reforms under an $8 billion financial reform program signed in March 2024 with the International Monetary Fund have helped Egypt bring inflation down from a peak of 38% in September 2023.

The IMF this month approved the disbursement of $1.2 billion to Egypt after its fourth review of the program.

The new budget targets a primary surplus of 795 billion pounds, equal to 4% of GDP, up from the 3.5% primary surplus originally targeted in the 2024/25 budget.

The IMF granted the government a waiver in the fourth review after the surplus came in 0.5% of GDP lower than Egypt's earlier commitment.

In its third review in June, the IMF praised Egypt for its "strict control of spending".

The new budget also lowers public debt to 82.9% of GDP from an expected 92% in 2024/25, the cabinet statement said.

The cabinet said 732.6 billion pounds in spending in the new budget would be allocated for subsidies, grants and social benefits, an increase of 15.2%.

The budget increases commodities and bread subsidies by 20% to 160 billion pounds. It will also include 75 billion pounds to subsidize petroleum products, 75 billion pounds to subsidize electricity and 3.5 billion pounds to subsidize natural gas deliveries to households, the statement added.