TUNIS: Tunisia’s government, under pressure from protests over public spending cuts, said yesterday it had done enough to persuade the IMF to approve a $500m loan tranche at meetings later this month.
Strikes started in the southern and central towns of Kasserine, Thala and Gafsa on Tuesday and spilled over to the capital Tunis on Wednesday, after calls from transport and agricultural unions to protest over a vehicle tax hike.
Riot police fired tear gas in some southern towns.
International lenders have been worried about Tunisia’s delayed political transition to full democracy after a popular uprising against Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in 2011 and have also pressed its leaders to bring government spending under control.
But Tunisia’s ruling Islamists hope that they have persuaded the IMF to approve the $500m payment.
“The IMF’s conditions are to reach a political agreement to finalise the transition, and keep our deficit under control. We have so far taken the main necessary measures,” finance minister Ilyas Fakhfakh said yesterday.
reuters
