Tunisia has asked the International Monetary Fund for a new financing program, the IMF said on Sunday, as the country prepared to begin talks with the global lender.
“The Tunisian authorities have officially requested a new program,” an IMF spokeswoman said. “The IMF has been and will remain Tunisia’s reliable partner during these challenging times.”
The IMF reiterated the need for any reform moves to be the result of an agreement between Tunisia’s main stakeholders as well as the country’s international partners, according to the letter to Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi shared Sunday with Bloomberg by government adviser Moufdi Al-Mseddi.
Reforms should also “tackle decisively” the issue of public finances and debt and a restructuring of subsidies, public firms and the public wage bill, the IMF said.
Tunisian officials said Mechichi will travel to Washington on May 3 to hold talks with IMF officials.
Tunisia reported a fiscal deficit of 11.5% of economic output in 2020, the biggest gap in nearly four decades as the coronavirus pandemic took its toll.
The country last year secured nearly $750 million through an emergency assistance loan from the IMF to help counter the economic impact of the coronavirus outbreak.
