Summary:

On 10 December 2024, President Kais Saied met with the Vice President of the World Bank in the Middle East and North Africa region, Ousmane Dione, to discuss continuing cooperation. 

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Mr. Dione expressed his satisfaction with the ongoing cooperation between the World Bank and Tunisia, noting that a healthy social contract is essential to such cooperation. 

President Saied welcomed more cooperation in accordance with the government’s priorities in the health, education, and transport sectors. The President also stated that financial cooperation should be based on the people’s needs and not on what he called “the diktats of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).” 

A previous meeting between the World Bank representatives and the Minister of Economy and Planification, Samir Abdelhafidh, concluded with the signing of Tunisia’s adhesion to the World Bank’s crisis response framework.In this context, the World Bank granted Tunisia a $150 million on 13 December to support the health sector.

Meanwhile, on 11 December, Tunisia received a grant of 78.8 million euros from the German Development Bank to improve distribution of drinking water in rural areas and to finance renewable energy projects. 

Outlook: 

Tunisia continues to mobilize international organizations and Western financing institutions for financial resources destined for infrastructure and development. This is timely and necessary as the government budget remains weighed down by the repayment of internal and external debts.  

External financial support from Western institutions like the World Bank is helping Tunisia’s economic recovery while favoring European interests by investing in projects that hold long-term potential to help with the prevention of migration flows in case of the collapse of the economy.  

Europe also remains focused on financing renewable energy projects in Tunisia which is part of a vision to eventually import green energy from North Africa.  

While a large-scale “bailout” remains unlikely, particularly if it comes with “diktats” from the IMF or a similar institution, Tunisia is likely to continue soliciting smaller international loans and grants to continue piecing together the resources and projects to keep public discontent at bay. 

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