According to the provisional results of the execution of the State budget at the end of September 2023, the public debt reached TND 120.5 billion.
Compared to the end of 2022, the public debt increased by 5.7 billion dinars, corresponding to an increase of 4.9%, i.e. a slower increase than nominal GDP.
As a result, the weight of public debt in GDP decreased from 79.9% in 2022 to 76% as of September 30, 2023. The Amending Finance Law for 2023 foresees a public debt stock of TND 127.2 billion at the end of the current year.
Between the end of 2022 and September 30, 2023, outstanding local public debt increased by TND 3.8 billion (+7.9%), while external public debt increased by TND 1.9 billion (+2.8%).
The share of local public debt in total public debt increased from 42% at the end of 2022 to 43.2% at September 30, 2023. Symmetrically, the share of external public debt decreased from 58% to 56.8%. It should be noted that 58.8% of the external public debt is denominated in euro, while 27.5% is denominated in dollars.
Outstanding public debt to the international financial market still represents 19.9%, compared with 20% for bilateral debt and 60.1% for multilateral debt.
The decrease in the share of external public debt is due to the fact that the external borrowing was lower than budgeted.
As of September 30, 2023, i.e. three quarters of the year, the State had raised external funds of TND 4.1 billion, compared with TND 14.85 billion provided for in the original 2023 Finance Law, updated to TND 10.56 billion in the 2023 Amending Finance Law.
