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Tunisia expects its budget to record lower deficits in the next years as a result of fiscal reforms that include boosting revenues and incentives for investment projects.
In a report this week, the Finance Ministry said the budget in 2022 recorded its first lower deficit in 11 years as the country is pushing ahead with reforms with an emphasis of spurring GDP growth.
The report, published by Alshuruq newspaper on Wednesday, showed the shortfall stood at 7.1 percent of GDP in 2023 compared with 7.7 percent in 2022.
“The budget deficit is expected to steadily decline over the next three years thanks to government efforts to achieve fiscal stability,” it said.
The report said the deficit is projected at TND11.5 billion ($3.7 billion) in 2024 and about TND9.8 billion ($3.16 billion) in 2025, adding that it will further drop to nearly TND8 billion ($2.58 billion) in 2026.
The expected decline will couple of higher GDP to slash the deficit-to-GDP ratio to 6.6 percent in 2024, about 5.2 percent in 2025 and 3.9 percent in 2026, the report showed.
(Writing by Nadim Kawach; Editing by Anoop Menon)
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