(Bloomberg) -- Tunisia’s government is looking to the central bank to help repay its external debt for a second straight year, as the economy languishes after a potential International Monetary Fund bailout stalled.
The state needs to borrow as much as 7 billion dinars ($2.2 billion) from the regulator in 2025, Finance Minister Sihem Boughdiri told parliament on Monday, proposing an addendum to next year’s budget that would permit the move.
The sum would mostly go toward servicing Tunisia’s debt, including a $1 billion eurobond maturing in January, Boughdiri said, in remarks carried by state news agency TAP.
The North African nation, mired in economic malaise since its 2010 pro-democracy uprising, has been struggling to boost revenue from its key foreign-currency earners such as manufacturing and phosphates. Talks on possible IMF support stopped more than a year ago as President Kais Saied rejected what he called foreign “diktats.”
It would be the second consecutive time Tunisia takes the unorthodox step of leaning on the central bank for direct financing of its budget and debt repayments under Saied, who was first elected five years ago. The government’s request for 2025 is equal to about 28% of the central bank’s foreign-currency reserves.
There’s been temporary relief from other quarters. Tunisia secured financial support from Saudi Arabia in 2023, while it also got an unexpected windfall from olive-oil exports this year due to limited global supplies — a situation that may not be repeated in 2025.
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