IMF official urges ‘deep reforms’ to Tunisian economy

Tunis: Tunisia’s crisis-stricken economy needs "deep reforms" such as slashing its vast public wage bill, the International Monetary Fund’s outgoing country chief has said as the government seeks a new bailout.

Jerome Vacher, speaking in an interview at the end of his three-year term as the global lender’s envoy to the North African country, said the coronavirus pandemic had helped create Tunisia’s "worst recession since independence" in 1956.

"The country had pre-existing problems, in particular budget deficits and public debt, which have worsened," he said. Tunisia’s debts have soared to nearly 100 percent of Gross Domestic Product.