Indicators for the 12 banks listed on the Tunis Stock Exchange show an increase in net loans outstanding to customers of these banks in the first three months of 2024, compared with the end of December 2023, to TND 13.2 million, reaching a total of 83.7 billion dinars, according to estimates by financial analyst Bassem Enneifer.
In his analysis of the various indicators of bank lending in Tunisia, Enneifer explained that deposits will exceed the threshold of TND 304.1 million in March 2024, bringing outstanding deposits to 99.9 billion dinars.
These indicators remain relatively low, he said, due to the offer of banks, which impose draconian conditions for the granting of various types of credit, in addition to the reluctance of companies to apply for loans after having revised their investment plans “downwards”.
He also noted that banks have increased the volume of funds employed to TND 904.7 million. This indicates their willingness to resort to treasury bills, which offer better guarantees and a better financial return.
Referring to the results for 2023 provided by the Central Bank of Tunisia, Enneifer pointed out that outstanding loans granted by the banking sector as a whole increased from TND 2,185.3 million to TND 6,848.8 million in 2022, meaning by less than a third.
For the analyst, this situation reflects the problematic situation of the Tunisian economy, which is experiencing a high interest rate that has discouraged companies from borrowing and thus partly affected growth, which did not exceed 0.4%.
He pointed out that outstanding loans reached TND 2,185.3 million last year, of which 98%, i.e. TND 2,145.1 million, were short-term loans and only TND 40.2 million were long- and medium-term loans.
The financial analyst pointed out that these indicators reflect the weakness of private investment in Tunisia, which was partly reflected in the growth rate recorded by the country last year.
In his analysis of bank loans granted last year, he noted that the share of short-term loans reached a record level of 59.9% of outstanding loans issued by Tunisian banks, compared with 58.9% in 2022.
As for the breakdown of loans granted, Enneifer noted that two sectors accounted for 58% of the loans, namely manufacturing (31.6%) and trade (26.6%).
For the other sectors, loans were distributed as follows: tourism 4.9%, agriculture 4.5% (less than TND 4 billion), telecommunications 1.6%, scientific and technical services 1.1%, education 0.4% and health 1.7%.
At the end of last year, the public administration’s share of these loans reached 3.3%, or TND 2,822 million dinars.
Enneifer recommended that promising sectors with high value added should have easier access to funding sources and bank loans, given their social role and ability to create value.
