Tunisia Debt Shoots Up

Tunisia’s public debt reached, at the end of December 2017, 69.9% of GDP against 61.9% in 2016, according to the December 2017 Public Debt Monthly Brochure posted by the Finance Ministry on its website, Albawaba reported. In terms of value, outstanding public debt rose from 55.921 billion dinars ($23.41 billion) for the whole of 2016 to 68.073 billion dinars at the end of December 2017. The external debt stood in December 2017 at 46.785 billion dinars (48.04% of GDP). It includes 50% of multilateral debts, 14% of bilateral debts and 36% of debts contracted with the international financial market. Domestic debt stood at 21.288 billion dinars (21.86% of GDP) and is essentially made up of treasury bonds (59%) and deposits at the General Treasury of Tunisia (31%). As a result, the debt service also increased from 5.198 billion dinars for the whole of 2016 to 7.004 billion dinars at the end of December 2017. The 2017 complementary finance law projected a debt service of 7.090 billion dinars.