Economy
From The Report: Tunisia 2017
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Tunisia’s economy has been buffeted in previous years by the fallout from factors such as domestic and regional political and security instability, and the eurozone slowdown. While a strong recovery has yet to materialise, growth prospects have been ticking upward over the past 12 months and, with a successful political transition now behind it, the country has a strong base from which to boost output and revenues. Equally importantly, Tunisia is seeing improvements in export competitiveness and the trade deficit. To help encourage this trend further, the authorities are implementing a range of economic reforms and initiatives, such as a new investment law passed in September 2016 that should help raise the pace of economic expansion in coming years.

This chapter contains interviews with Lamia Boujnah Zribi, Former Minister of Finance; Mohamed Fadhel Abdelkefi, Minister of Development, Investment and International Cooperation; Boutheina Ben Yaghlane Ben Slimane, General Manager, Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations; and Noureddine Taboubi, Secretary-General, Tunisian General Labour Union.

Articles from this Chapter

Overview

Trending upward: Growth expected to pick up thanks to government measures and improved export competitiveness
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Tunisia’s economy has been buffeted in previous years by the fallout from factors such as domestic and regional political and security instability, and the slowdown in the eurozone. While a strong economic recovery has yet to materialise, the country’s growth prospects have been ticking upward over the past 12 months and, with a successful political transition now behind it, Tunisia has a strong base from which to boost output and revenues. Equally importantly, the country is seeing…

Interview

Facilitating investment: Lamia Boujnah Zribi, Former Minister of Finance, on opening the legislative doors to foreign investors
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Interview:Lamia Boujnah Zribi What will be the role of private investment in Tunisia’s economic recovery? LAMIA BOUJNAH ZRIBI: Tunisia needs to be aiming for an investment rate of close to 30% of GDP if it is going to speed up the recovery of the economy. However, the government has little budgetary leeway to make investments in the development of the country. The government budget is already constrained by a high public-sector wage bill, debt service burden and subsidies. Thus, government…

Interview

Climate of confidence: Mohamed Fadhel Abdelkefi, Minister of Development, Investment and International Cooperation, on shaping the country’s business environment
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Interview:Mohamed Fadhel Abdelkefi How competitive is Tunisia’s economy? MOHAMED FADHEL ABDELKEFI: Tunisia is competitive for several reasons. The country possesses a deep labour pool with a competitive quality-to-cost ratio, it boasts a millennia-old trading culture and it is close to Europe, thus holding a unique geostrategic position. Tunisia is known worldwide for its contributions to the global aeronautic supply chain, which ranges from manufacturing to hardware and software development.…

Analysis

A new centre of innovation: Updated legislation to fuel local start-up development
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While the MENA start-up scene remains small, Tunisia is emerging as one of the region’s key centres for entrepreneurship, as underscored by the rapid growth in recent years in the number of incubators and accelerators operating in the country. Developing the domestic start-up scene, and entrepreneurship more generally, has the potential to help bring down unemployment, which stands at around 15%. With this in mind, the authorities introduced new legislation in April 2017 to stimulate the…

Analysis

Balance check: Curbing the current account deficit remains a key priority
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Tunisia consistently ran a fairly small current account deficit for most of the late 2000s, with the figure standing in the low single digits as a percentage of GDP. However, as with many economic indicators, the deficit worsened significantly in the years immediately following the country’s revolution, jumping to 7.4% in 2011 and peaking at 9.1% in 2014. The rise in the deficit has had a number of implications for the broader economy, including a tightening in banking sector liquidity,…

Interview

Empowering the economy: Boutheina Ben Yaghlane Ben Slimane, General Manager, Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations (CDC), on the roles of public and private investment
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Interview: Boutheina Ben Yaghlane Ben Slimane What is the role of public investment in developing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)? BOUTHEINA BEN YAGHLANE BEN SLIMANE : Public investment has a role to play in the financing and guidance of SMEs, especially those in interior regions and those involved in high-value-added sectors, such as green energy and IT. As the financial arm of the Tunisian government, the CDC aims to boost the economy by stabilising its financial landscape, and supporting…

Interview

Open channels: Noureddine Taboubi, Secretary-General, Tunisian General Labour Union (Union Générale Tunisienne du Travail, UGTT), on labour reform and youth employment
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Interview: Noureddine Taboubi To what extent is it important for the UGTT to work towards the success of the Carthage Agreement? NOUREDDINE TABOUBI: The UGTT focuses a lot of its attention on matters related to regional development and other social issues. When looking at the Carthage Agreement, the vast majority of its objectives were inspired by the UGTT’s own goals and development plans. For example, the agreement, as well as the 2017 Finance Law, includes objectives related to tax reform…

Analysis

Renewed pressure: A range of initiatives aim to address rising public debt and curb the fiscal deficit
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Tunisia’s fiscal deficit and public debt burden rose in the years following the country’s 2011 revolution, before coming down again from 2013 onwards as a result of subsidy cuts and other fiscal consolidation measures taken by the state. However, more modest than expected growth in 2016, along with upward pressure on the public sector wage bill in particular, have seen both the deficit and debt start to increase again. In order to stabilise public finances, the 2017 budget, passed in…