Loans provided by the financial sector to the Tunisian economy increased by only 1.8% (+TND 2 billion) in the first half of the current year, compared with an increase of 4.8% (TND 5 billion) in the previous year.
According to the Central Bank of Tunisia (BCT), this increase was due to a rise in fixed assets (TND 1.4 billion) and, to a lesser extent, in current accounts in debit (TND 671 million), while the outstanding discount portfolio with banks fell by TND 1.2 billion, compared with -TND 2.7 billion in the previous year.
The BCT points out that the increase in loans in the first six months of 2023 mainly concerned the services sector (+747 million dinars) and private individuals (+539 million dinars), followed by industry (+290 million dinars) and agriculture and fishing (+143 million dinars).
On the other hand, net claims on the government showed a net recovery of +7.1% (2,872 million dinars) at the end of the first half of 2023, compared with -1.4% (-500 million dinars) in the first half of 2022.
This increase essentially reflects the expansionary effect of the decrease in the Treasury’s current account (-1.5 billion dinars) and the increase in the outstanding amount of Treasury bills purchased by the BCT in the context of open market operations (+508 million dinars).
This is, in addition to the mobilization of resources in dinar within the framework of the National bond loan for a total of 1,559 million dinars.
