Tunis - "The economic situation in Tunisia is difficult especially as the economy goes through a technical recession," asserted, Friday, Adviser for the Prime Minister in charge of supervision of the Board of Economic Analysis Taoufik Rajhi.
In order to overcome this situation, the Board emphasises the key role of investment, completion of public projects, reducing social claims, he said in a statement to the media, after his meeting with Prime Minister Habib Essid.
A national consensus must be reached as regards the large-scale reforms, more importance granted to the sector of energy and create a centre of Strategic planning in Tunisia to recover the national economy and end "the technical recession phase".
Rajhi explained "the technical recession" by the drop of growth rate during the two successive quarters. The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) registered in the second quarter of 2015 a negative growth of 0,7% after a fall of 0.2% registered in the first quarter of 2015.
For this official, these data mean that the country is no longer able to create riches, which provokes automatically, a regression of investment and proliferation of unemployment.
The economic recession phase does not lead to the bankruptcy of the state, he said. As regards the solutions recommended to end the crisis, Rajhi said that the state is called to start with courage the large-scale reforms and strive to reduce social claims, promote interior tourism and make the most of the fall of hydrocarbons' prices worldwide.
The growth rate must stand at 0.5% despite the difficult economic situation which marked the first two quarters of the current year, he predicted.
© Tunis-Afrique Presse 2015
