Tunisia

- Tunisians are feeling the weight of the economic and financial crisis that the country has been experiencing for months, and its impact on their daily lives. In the past few days, it has been deepened by the delay in the salaries of government employees in a precedent that the country has not known for years.

The educator (teacher) Khaled Al-Toumi, in his speech to Al-Jazeera Net, shares the fears with his colleagues in the teaching sector about the recurring delay in the payment of their wages, in light of his family financial obligations and the expenses of his three children, as well as the installments of a bank loan.

Al-Toumi asserts that his government salary, which others may envy, is barely enough to support his family, in light of the high cost of living and the insane rise in the prices of food, electricity, gas and gasoline, at a time when the state has been unable to rein in monopolists and speculators in the market.

The suffering of this breeder did not depend on the delay in disbursing his salary, as he says, but rather on his incurred waiting for long hours in an extended queue in front of the bakeries in light of the flour crisis experienced by many governorates in the country, as well as the continuous search for gas and oil bottles and egg cartons, which have all become a precious treasure for everyone. who gets it.

salary delays

The delay in disbursing the salaries of employees of the education sector sparked a wave of anger among teachers and university professors, and the General University of Higher Education expressed its condemnation of the delay in disbursing the salaries of its employees, and its impact on their living lives and their obligations with banks, blaming the government for the consequences of the delay.

Many believe that the promises made by the Tunisian president to fight corruption and track down speculators and "those who abuse the people's food" after taking over all powers last July 25 have no impact on their daily lives.

The Tunisian Institute of Statistics (a government agency) revealed that inflation rates had risen to 6.6% at the end of last December, after it was in the range of 4.9% in the same month of 2020, while the unemployment rate reached 18.4%.

High rates of inflation

The institute attributed the high inflation rates to the rise in the prices of basic materials such as foodstuffs, reaching an average of 7.6% in December 2021, after it was in the range of 4.9% in April of the same year. The average prices of housing and household energy also increased from 4.9% to 5.1 % of the same period.

The assertion by some political leaders and activists that the government seized the savings of Tunisians at the Postal Corporation to pay the wages of government sector employees sparked panic among citizens, for the Tunisian Post to publish a clarification statement.

The Tunisian Post clarified that its financing of the state budget for the payment of employee wages, a procedure that has been in place for decades, stressing in return that these amounts have nothing to do with the money deposited in postal savings accounts that remain in the hands of clients and enjoy the state’s guarantee.

Grab the savings of the citizens

In this regard, the General Secretary of the Postal Syndicate, Habib Missouri, confirmed in a statement to Al Jazeera Net that the Post pumped 700 million dinars (250 million dollars) of its savings to the state treasury in order to redeem employees' wages for the month of January.

He stressed that, contrary to what is being promoted by some of the government's appropriation of citizens' savings by mail, these amounts remain with them if they want to withdraw them at any time.

Al-Mizouri stressed that this process was previously resorted to in the old financial crises that hit the country in the eighties and nineties, and that it is not the first time that the state has resorted to public institutions to pump resources for the benefit of the public treasury.

No prejudice to wages

The Minister of Finance, Siham Boughediri, had confirmed, in a statement, after her meeting with the President of the Republic, that the delay in the payment of employee wages was due to its timing with the weekend. .

Central Bank concern

In a statement published on Thursday, the Central Bank of Tunisia expressed its deep concern about the delay in mobilizing external resources necessary to finance the state budget for the year 2022.

The CBE stressed the importance of the government's commitment to initiating the structural reforms necessary to advance economic growth, tightening the budget, and avoiding any resort to monetary financing (printing money), which may have severe consequences for monetary and financial stability.

And the financial expert Izz El-Din Saidan - in his speech to Al-Jazeera Net - said that the credit rating agency "Moody's" call on the Tunisian government to diagnose a "clearer" diagnosis of its funding sources for the budget to ensure the stability of its sovereign numbering, the biggest indication of the uncertainty of the country's financial situation.

He pointed out that the state budget programmed for the year 2022 contained 20 billion dinars (7 billion dollars) as additional internal and external loans programmed by the state, but it did not clarify their sources in return, in the absence of any agreement with the International Monetary Fund, and this means that it is impossible to obtain them in the absence of any guarantee from the International Monetary Agency.

debt rescheduling

He stressed that the Tunisian government has actually started rescheduling its internal debts with banks, due to its inability to pay their dues within the specified deadlines, and this is a preliminary step for Tunisia's request to reschedule its external debts, which was clearly confirmed by the secret visit made by the head of the French Treasury and the Paris Club, Emmanuel Moulin, to Tunisia.

And the French “Africa Intelligence” website had revealed a private and unannounced visit by the head of the French Treasury and the president of the Paris Club (an international financial group specialized in rescheduling the debts of bankrupt countries), during which he met the Minister of Finance and the Governor of the Central Bank of Tunisia.

The report did not rule out that the French Treasury chief's discussions with the Tunisian parties would address the issue of rescheduling the country's debt, which means its entry into the Paris Club.

After the internal controversy sparked by the unannounced visit of its treasury chief, the French embassy hastened to publish a clarification statement, stressing that the visit falls within France's "support for Tunisia in the reforms it intends to undertake within the framework of negotiations with the International Monetary Fund."