Tunisia's Finance Ministry has signed a syndicated loan of €356 million (usd399.6 million) from a pool of twelve local banks to finance the state budget.
The loan agreement was signed on March 26, 2019, by the minister of finance Ridha Chalghoum and the managers of the 12 banks in the presence of the governor of the central bank of Tunisia, Marouen Abassi.
Two forms of repayment of this loan are planned, according to the choice of banks. The first formula is paying back three equal installments over three years with an interest rate fixed at 2.25%.
The second formula is to repay the credit in one installment, after three years and with an interest rate of 2.5%, the ministry said in a statement.
Chalghoum said the credit is “a form of financing appropriate to the conditions and cost.”
Abassi hoped that the Tunisian economy would achieve the desired growth and hopes for investment, which would promote production and ensure liquidity in foreign exchange and in Tunisian dinar.
In this context, Ezzeddine Saidan, a Tunisian economic and financial expert, said that such an agreement injects the Tunisian economy that is suffering a scarcity in resources with fresh blood. He added that the delay in the sixth payment of the IMF loan makes funding the public finance an urgent matter.
This is the second time the Tunisian government borrows from foreign banks in a three-year period – in 2017, it took a EUR250 million loan to fund the state budget.
