Cumulative external debt servicing grew by 44 percent, as of August 20, 2019, compared to the same period last year, according to data released by the Central Bank of Tunisia (BCT).
The Central Bank said debt services are currently around 6.5 billion dinars, while they were 4.5 billion dinars a year earlier.
The Ministry of Finance had revealed in the recently published provisional results of the execution of the state budget at the end of June 2019 that the budget allocated to the repayment of the principal of the debt amounted to 3.4 billion dinars, against 2.2 billion dinars in June 2018, which corresponds to a rise of 54%.
Similarly, the budget for repayment of interest on debt exceeded 1.9 billion dinars at the end of June 2019, against 1.6 billion dinars last year (+ 18%).
The budget allocated to the repayment of principal and interest on the debt during the first half of 2019 accounts for almost ¼ of all state expenditure.
