Tunisia’s budget deficit has narrowed to nearly 3.8 billion ($1.3 billion), at the end of September 2021, against 4.9 billion dinars, in September 2020, down 23 percent, local media reports said, citing Finance Ministry’s budget data.
The decrease in the budget deficit is due to the increase in budgetary resources by 10.3 percent, to 23.5 billion dinars, due to the rise in tax revenues by 15 percent (to 22.2 billion dinars), against a smaller growth in budgetary expenses of 5.9 percent, to 27.2 billion dinars.
The change in budgetary expenses is explained mainly by the increase in compensation expenditures wage by 6.8 percent, from 14.1 billion dinars to 15 billion dinars, within one year (September 2020-September 2021).
The Ministry of Finance also reported the increase in cash resources by 18 percent to 12.8 billion dinars, 86 percent of which come from borrowing resources (11.1 billion dinars) at a rate of 50 percent of domestic borrowing and 50 percent of external borrowing.
These resources have been allocated, primarily, to the repayment of the principal of the debt (7.9 billion dinars) and financing the deficit (3.7 billion dinars), the reports said.
The Finance Ministry data also highlight an increase in public debt service by 32 percent, during the first nine months of the year 2021, to 10.7 billion dinars.
As for the outstanding public debt, it exceeded 101 billion dinars, at the end of September 2021, against 90.4 billion dinars, in September 2020, which corresponds to a rise of 12.6 percent.