2023-06-23 00:21:09
On Thursday evening, the Tunisian presidency said that President Kais Saied had informed the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, Kristalina Georgieva, that the Fund’s conditions for providing financial support to his country threatened to spark civil unrest.
A statement issued by the presidency said that Saeed made it clear that “the prescriptions of the International Monetary Fund to provide financial support to Tunisia are unacceptable, because they will affect civil peace, which has no price.”
Said’s remarks came during a meeting with Georgieva in Paris on the sidelines of a financing summit held on Thursday evening, according to the Tunisian presidency.
Tunisia’s talks with the International Monetary Fund on a bailout package have been stalled for months, and there is little sign that Saied is ready to agree to the steps needed to reach an agreement that will help the country avoid a financial crisis.
Without obtaining a loan, Tunisia is facing a major balance of payments crisis. Most of the debt is internal, but there are external loan payments due later in the year, and credit rating agencies have said the country might default.
Said reiterated that any required reductions in subsidies, mostly in energy and food, might have harmful repercussions for the country, pointing to deadly riots in Tunisia in 1983, following announcing the lifting of subsidies on grain and its derivatives.
The presidential statement said that Saeed confirmed that he “will not accept that one drop of blood be spilled,” adding that Georgieva welcomed the president’s invitation to visit Tunisia at a date yet to be determined.
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