Tunisia’s economy grew 2.5 percent in 2018 compared with 1.9 percent in the previous year, the state statistics institute said. However, this came below than the Tunisian government’s estimation which saw growth at 3 percent.
Several factors curbed economic growth opportunities in Tunisia in 2018: deterioration of local currency value, a record deficit of trade balance, drop in foreign currency reserve, and low exports of strategic phosphate.
The World Bank forecasts that global economic growth will strengthen to 2.7 percent in 2018, accelerate to 3.3 percent during the current year and will maintain the same percentage in 2020.
Tunisian authorities work on making a balanced development in a number of poor regions where unemployment reached 30 percent. However, weak self-resources pushed the authorities to depend on foreign financial loans that overburdened the local economy.
Ezzeddine Saidan, a Tunisian economic and financial expert, said that reaching a growth rate of more than 3 percent requires the return of traditional economic drivers to serious work. He stressed the importance of pushing exports; especially Phosphate and that of farmers' sector.
Saidan also underpinned preparing an environment conducive to direct foreign investments to encourage Tunisians working abroad to return to their homeland and invest in it.
