The president of Tunisia questions the bailout after rejecting IMF "diktats"

 


President Kais Saied of Tunisia stated on Thursday that he would not accept "diktats" and that subsidy cutbacks may cause unrest, which was his most blatant rejection of the terms of a blocked $1.9 billion IMF rescue plan to yet.

In September, Tunisia and the IMF agreed a staff-level agreement for the loan, but the country has already broken important deadlines, and donors worry that the state's finances are moving farther away from the numbers used to compute the deal.

Tunisia would be in a severe balance of payments problem without a loan. The majority of debt is domestic, but Tunisia may fail on payments on its international loans that are due later this year, according to credit rating agencies.

When asked if he would accept the loan's requirements, which include reducing public pay costs and reducing food and energy subsidies, Kais Saied said, "I will not hear diktats."

He said, "Public peace is not a game," recalling the fatal riots that the North African nation had in 1983 as a result of the government raising the price of food.

The president responded, "Tunisians must count on themselves," when asked whether there was an alternative to the IMF loan. There is no other option, according to members of his cabinet, except a deal with the fund.

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