Debt servicing in Tunisia hit 14.8 billion dinars by late December 2021, that is 11.37% of the GDP, the Finance Ministry said in its monthly debt report released Thursday.
Debt servicing edged up 33% compared to 2020 figures and 54% compared to 2019. The ratio of debt service to GDP grew from 5.14% in 2015 to 6.87% in 2017 and 7.83% in 2019 before reaching 11.37% in 2021.
The principal of the debt amounted to nearly 11.1 billion dinars last year. This includes 6.1 billion dinars in external debt (55.6% of the principal) as follows: loans from the international financial market (3.4 billion dinars) and others made in the multilateral framework (1.6 billion dinars) and bilateral framework (1 billion dinars).
The principal of the domestic debt reached 4.9 billion dinars, mainly from 52-week treasury bonds (2.4 billion dinars) and government bonds (1.5 billion dinars).
The interest on the debt amounted to almost 3.7 billion dinars in 2021, down 1.1%, compared to 2020.
Interest on domestic debt increased in recent years, soaring from 1.6 billion dinars in 2019 to more than 2.1 billion dinars in 2020 and 2021. Meanwhile, the interest on external debt stabilized at 1.5 billion dinars.
