Today (Saturday), Tunisian Finance Minister Siham Al-Bugdiri Namsiya said her nation has not defaulted on its obligations and would honour its commitments despite pressure.
The Tunisian minister said during a parliamentary plenary session on a draught law to approve a loan agreement signed on July 20 between Tunisia and Saudi Arabia to finance the state budget that Tunisia was able to repay 42% of the total loans claimed to be paid this year.
She said Tunisia must repay 20 billion dinars ($6.451 billion) in loans this year.
On August 4, Tunisia had to return a “samurai loan” of 560 million dinars ($180.64 million).
In her speech, the Tunisian Minister of Finance stated that the state “is required within the framework of its continuity to fulfil its pledges, in addition to its other pledges and all expenses carried on it, despite the pressures and the events and shocks such as the Corona pandemic and the Russian-Ukrainian war.”
She said Tunisia “has not failed, despite all pressure, to repay any loan, and that the current government is making an effort at the level of mobilising financial resources and repaying loans at the same time.”
However, she noted that the mobilisation of external financial resources accounted for around 40% of the state budget’s total borrowing resources permitted in the Finance Law for the current year, assuming that it continues throughout the year.