Maghreb Edition

Tunisia’s weak economic performance compounded by late data releasesF

Posted On 22 May 2024

Number of times this article was read : 4280

Tunisia’s political system is still compromised, but the economy is showing some signs of minimal recovery. However, one area that is contributing to the inability of decision makers to react to changes and challenges in the economy is the time it takes for economic data to be released. For example, it is only now, May 2024, that we learned that banks showed cumulative profits of 1.474 billion dinars in 2023, compared to 1.263 billion in 2022.

The data does not include STB, CitiBank, BFPME and BTL, which strangely have not yet published their results. While the news is positive, with banks showing double-digit growth in profits, the fact that it took months to generate partial data is a big problem for business operators and policy makers.

Likewise, the government only announced recently that the state budget managed a surplus of 1.3 billion dinars at the end of 2023, down from 1.4 billion dinars at the end of March 2023. Again these figures released months after the fiscal period ended is indicative of a poorly tracked economy.

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The North Africa Journal is a leading English-language publication focused on North Africa. The Journal covers primarily the Maghreb region and expands its general coverage to the Sahel, Egypt, and beyond, when events in those regions affect the broader North Africa geography. The Journal does not have any affiliation with any institution and has been independent since its founding in 1996. Our position is to always bring our best analysis of events affecting the region, and remain as neutral as humanly possible. Our coverage is not limited to one single topic, but ranges from economic and political affairs, to security, defense, social and environmental issues. We rely on our full staff analysts and editors to bring you best-in-class analysis. We also work with sister company MEA Risk LLC, to leverage the presence on the ground of a solid network of contributors and experts. Information on MEA Risk can be found at www.MEA-Risk.com.