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Economy growth to pick up, challenges persist in Tunisia: IMF

Xinhua, February 9, 2017 Adjust font size:

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission in Tunisia said Wednesday that the Tunisian economy growth is expected to pick up, while significant macroeconomic challenges linger.

The IMF mission said that Tunisia could finish the current year with a economic growth of 2.5 percent, an increase from 1.3 percent in 2016.

"The Tunisian economy is still resisting against an uncertain and difficult local and global situation," said Bjorn Rather, head of the IMF mission in Tunisia.

Growth is supported by the success of the international conference "TUNISIA 2020" held in November 2016, and the approval of legislation relating to the private sector, said IMF in a statement.

However, the country has not yet rectified a flagrant deficit in its public debt, which exceeds 60 percent of the GDP, it added.

The IMF mission and the Tunisian government therefore recognized the urgent need for a series of measures to preserve public investment and recover the backlog of structural reforms.

The measures would involve mobilizing more tax revenues, rationalizing the public payrolls, and carrying out fuel prices adjustment mechanism. Endit