Tunisia
Financial analyst Bassem Naifer forecasts debt servicing will fall to around 20 billion dinars in 2027 from 23.05 billion this year, after peaking at 24.81 billion in 2024, easing pressure on state finances after three difficult years. Total public debt is projected at 156.7 billion dinars this year, 83.4% of GDP, with domestic borrowing now making up 64% of the total, up from 47.2% in 2023. Naifer expects a deficit under 6% of GDP in 2027 and warns that energy costs or new regional tensions could erase the relief.
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Webdo · Sunday, 4 October 2026
Tunisia's monthly minimum wage, the SMIG, stands at 490 dinars, less than half Morocco's equivalent of $335, yet Tunisia ranks 12th in Africa for investment attractiveness against Morocco's 5th, according to a report by the IACE business institute marking 60 years of Tunisia's labour code. The IACE argues that rigid rules on subcontracting, workplace bargaining and union representation are costing Tunisia the advantage its lower wages should buy, while unemployment, at 15.2%, runs above Morocco's 12.8% and Egypt's 6.3%.
Tunisia's National Institute of Statistics put annual inflation at 5.6 percent in September, up from 5.4 percent in August, in data released Monday. It is the second straight monthly rise, after inflation had eased for three months through July. Food and drink prices rose 8.4 percent over the year, against 7.5 percent in August, led by vegetables, poultry and eggs. Core inflation, which excludes food and energy, held steady at 4.9 percent, and consumer prices overall rose 0.8 percent from August to September.
Marchers who set out from Sidi Bouzid on 27 September to demand jobs for long-term unemployed university graduates reached Borj Cedria, on the outskirts of the capital, on Monday after nine days of walking. The group grew from 23 to more than 120 people along the roughly 300 kilometre route, and two participants were hospitalised after being hit by a motorcycle on 3 October. They are demanding the government implement Law 18 of 2025, which promises public-sector hiring for graduates whose unemployment has run for years, including a digital registration platform and a firm timeline. Organisers paused at Borj Cedria to decide whether to continue on to the presidential palace at Carthage.
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Nawaat · Monday, 5 October 2026
Geopolitics
Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, standing in for his father Jair Bolsonaro, who is imprisoned over his attempt to seize power by force, took 47.04% of Sunday's vote to President Lula da Silva's 45.15%, short of the majority needed to win outright. The two meet in an October 25 runoff after a vote marked by 21.08% abstention, the highest share in a first round since 1998.
Meeting in New Alamein on October 4, Egypt's president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Eritrea's president Isaias Afwerki, Somalia's president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and Sudan's army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan issued a joint declaration calling for 'dialogue, not confrontation', insisting Red Sea access must stay with coastal states, and warning Ethiopia against 'unilateral measures' on the Nile, a reference to its giant dam project. The other three also backed Sudan's military-led government, a day after Ethiopian forces said they had retaken Tigray's capital Mekelle from TPLF rebels, who say they have only relocated, not surrendered.
Europe
The United List, the party of Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs, took 35.3% of the vote and a projected 42 of 100 seats in Saturday's election, the largest number any single Latvian party has won since independence. That falls short of the 51 needed to govern alone, leaving Kulbergs to negotiate a coalition in a fragmented parliament where the populist Suverēnā vara and Latvija pirmajā vietā parties also gained ground.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz travelled to Kyiv by train on Sunday with Economy Minister Katherina Reiche and German defence and energy executives, pledging 1 billion euros for joint long-range weapons production and 350 million euros to repair Ukraine's damaged power plants. Merz told Vladimir Putin to 'stop this senseless war' and said Germany was ready for talks, while warning that the 'barbaric attacks' on civilians must stop first.
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Euronews · Sunday, 4 October 2026
Between 400 and 500 French secondary schools were fully or partly shut on October 5 as students kept up protests over crumbling buildings, overcrowded classes and teacher shortages that began two weeks earlier in Créteil. Nearly 5,000 people have been arrested since the movement started, 78 education staff have been injured, and a 59-year-old teacher was doused in petrol and beaten by an unidentified attacker in La Ciotat. A third national mobilisation day was planned for October 6.
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Euronews · Sunday, 4 October 2026