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Tunisia’s 2019 debt payments to hit record of more than $3 bln

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Tunisia’s debt repayments will rise to a record level of more than 9 billion dinars ($3.24 billion) in 2019, the finance minister said on Monday.

The North African country’s economy has been in crisis since the toppling of autocrat Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali in 2011, with unemployment and inflation shooting up.

In 2017, the debt service was about 7.9 billion dinars.

“Debt service will exceed 9 bln dinar next year compared with about 5.1 in 2016,” Finance Minister Ridha Chalgoum said, giving no other details.

Tunisia needs about 7 billion dinars in external financing in 2019, a senior official told Reuters last week.

The government aims to reduce its budget deficit to 3.9 percent next year from the 4.9% it forecasts for 2018.

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