2023-05-09 23:33:10
The rest sank into poverty
Due to inflation, the middle class has also considerably lost its purchasing power. According to economist Ezzedine Saidane, “it represented 60% of the population in 2010. Today, it has fallen to 25%. The rest sank into poverty“.
Last year, the government reduced subsidies on hydrocarbons, five times in a row. A cumulative increase of 20%. Taxi drivers are the first concerned. Ahmed Mzougui was forced to pass on this increase to the counters. With his cultural taxi, he tries to retain his customers. Despite this, he admits having lost his standard of living. “I stopped going out to restaurants every week, now we go out once a month. Instead of buying 2 kg, we buy 1 kg, instead of buying 2 packs, we buy just one… It’s not like before!”.
In its 2023 finance law, the government has planned to gradually lift subsidies for hydrocarbons and basic products “to reach price truth within 4 years“. For these grants that theANDtat draws from the Compensation Fund, weigh heavily in public finances: more than 3.3% of GDP.
Economic indicators in red
“Tunisia is not on the verge of collapse”, analyse Ezzedine Saidane,”but it must be admitted thatthere is a management problem : the State spends a lot, without economic efficiency. We see it in the areas of health, education, justice, security, our public enterprises: despite the expenses, the quality is deteriorating“.
Tll Tunisia’s economic indicators are red: double-digit inflation, a debt that exceeds 100% of GDP, very weak growth expected this year, 42% of young people are unemployed. But above all, the coffers are empty. After the Covid, exports collapsed, while tourism never regained its level before the attacks on the Bardo museum and then Sousse in 2015, killing 24 and 39 respectively.
The Tunisian government has negotiated an agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). In exchange for $1.9 billion, he pledges to implement a series of reforms, including improving the taxation of the informal economy, reducing the huge public sector wage bill, phasing out subsidies, through targeted compensatory measures, intended for the most modest…
The wage bill in Tunisia is considered one of the highest in the Arab world. In 2022, it monopolized more than half of state resources (56%). “The state hires a lot in public companies, even though the beneficiaries have nothing to do there, no work to do, no office. Especially in the phosphate industry“, confides an anonymous person to a good source.
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