Tunisia’s foreign exchange reserves are at ‘critical’ levels (experts)

The Tunisian Central Bank announced that the country’s foreign exchange reserves fell to 11.3 billion Tunisian dinars, equivalent to about 4.6 billion dollars, which covers no more than 80 days of the value of the country’s imports, after it was covering 82 days.

Experts said that this decline warns of many risks that Tunisia may face in case the reserves continue to fall to lower levels.

The Central Bank attributed this decline to the country’s need to enhance the mobilization of  foreign exchange resources at the beginning of each year, to provide the necessary stocks of energy, and food and industrial raw materials, in addition to servicing external debt.

The Tunisian government has been planning this year to raise bread prices to reduce the cost of subsidies. However, it has retreated following warnings of social turmoil.

Traders said the Governmental Tunisian Grains Office had bought about 67 thousand tons of soft wheat flour and 50 thousand tons of barley to be supplied from alternative sources in a global tender.

Tunisia has been suffering from a worsening trade deficit, which reached a record level of 15.5 billion Tunisian dinars at the end of last year. Tourism revenues have recently started to recover after witnessing successive strikes over the past period due to terrorist acts that hit the country. The government expects tourism revenues to grow by 25 percent this year, compared to the previous year.

Last month, the Tunisian parliament approved the appointment of a new Central Bank governor, Marwen Abbesi who, the country aspires, would contribute in stabilising the local currency and curb inflationary pressures.

TunisianMonitorOnLine (MEMO)

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