COVID-19: IMF Approves $745m Loan for Tunisia

• COVID-19: IMF Approves $745m Loan for Tunisia

In a bid to ease the economic effect of Coronavirus on Tunisian economy, the International Monetary Fund on Friday approved a $745 million loan for the embattled country.

Tunisia’s economy is expected to contract by 4.3 percent this year, it would be the nation’s worse recession since 1956 independence.

According to the Fund, this is the first emergency financing to the Middle East and North Africa region.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has hit Tunisia hard.

“The pandemic will worsen Tunisia’s already elevated macroeconomic imbalances and will also create urgent fiscal and balance of payment needs,” Mitsuhiro Furusawa, the IMF deputy managing director said in a statement.

The loan is to help Tunisia “contain the spread of the virus and mitigate its human, social, and economic toll amid unprecedented uncertainty.”

The fund added that the “be used to increase health spending, strengthen social safety nets, and support Tunisian businesses.”