TUNIS - Tunisia's central bank governor Chedli Ayari will resign after Prime Minister Youssef Chahed asked him to quit, the governor said on Wednesday, adding he regarded the request as a "major insult", according to parliament's website.

Last week, the government said it wanted to sack Ayari and replace him with World bank official Marouane El Abassi.

"Even if the parliament renewed my confidence, I will not stay," Ayari told the assembly's financial committee, according to the website. "What happened is a major insult."

"I feel great bitterness after I and my colleagues in the bank worked five years without a day off."

The North African country's economy has been hit hard since the overthrow of former autocrat Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali in 2011 and two major militant attacks in 2015, all of which have deterred tourists and investors alike.

Chahed's move to replace Ayari came a day after central bank data showed Tunisia's foreign currency reserves dropped to levels worth just 84 days of imports, their lowest in 15 years.

Parliament is expected to vote on the plan on Thursday after which President Beji Caid Essebsi also needs to approve the move. Ayari has been in office since 2012.

Abassi is the World Bank representative for Tunisia's neighbor Libya, according to the lender's website. He holds a doctorate in economics from the Sorbonne University in Paris.

Chahed heads a coalition of Islamists and secularists who have been trying to reduce the country's budget deficit by imposing austerity measures, including tax hikes on some goods on Jan 1, as part of steps agreed with the country's foreign lenders.

The measures triggered protests last month as many normal Tunisians say they are materially worse off than before the 2011 revolution.

Annual inflation rose to 6.9 percent in January, the highest level in 20 years, from 6.4 percent in December.

While tourism revenues climbed somewhat last year as the number of visitors rose by 23 percent, protesters calling for jobs have brought Tunisia's entire phosphate output to a halt with sit-ins at installations of the sole local producer.

(Reporting by Tarek Amara; Writing by Ulf Laessing; Editing by Alison Williams, William Maclean) ((Ulf.Laessing@thomsonreuters.com; Reuters Messaging: follow me on twitter @ulflaessing))