On Monday, President Qais Saeed called on the government to impose restrictions on imports of luxury items in order to reduce the trade balance deficit with a number of countries.
President Saeed said - during his meeting with Prime Minister Naglaa Boden - that the aim of this measure is to reduce the damage to public finances.
"How can one explain the supply of special food for domestic animals or the supply of cosmetics from foreign perfume houses, when there is (foreign) hard currency, while citizens in most of them doubt the minimum necessities of life," the presidency statement said.
"If there are difficulties, and the whole world is witnessing difficulties in a number of sectors, then the whole national group must bear these conditions on the basis of social justice," the statement continued.
The imports drain the foreign exchange reserves of the state treasury.
meat document
The Tunisian president faces harsh criticism from his opponents for wasting public money in unbearable living conditions, while his supporters insist that he is a clean man, and that all the accusations raised around him are nothing more than "a beating below the belt."
The accusations came after a document was circulated on the communication platforms, which was said to be a request for offers by the Presidency of the Republic, posted on the public procurement website, to obtain red meat with a value of one million and 141 thousand dinars (about 450 thousand dollars), which is an exaggerated waste.
Last Saturday, the communication sites were filled with a lot of criticism, as some saw that the president is marketing to the people an image of himself as being ruthless and ascetic in the world, while he buys meat for his presidential palace with exorbitant money, and at a time when the country is experiencing its darkest crises, according to their opinion.
The trade deficit during the 8 months of this year amounted to 16.9 billion dinars (more than 5 billion dollars), compared to 10.14 billion dinars (about 3 billion dollars) during the same period in 2021, according to data from the National Institute of Statistics.
China, Turkey, Algeria and Russia topped the list of countries with which Tunisia suffers from a trade deficit.