Tunisia repays a 740-million-euro debt instalment and secures a 500-million-dollar Afreximbank loan
Finance Minister Michket Slama Khaldi told the finance committee of the Assembly of the Representatives of the People on July 20 that Tunisia had repaid in mid-July the 2026 instalment of what she called the country's largest external loan, worth 740 million euros, conceding that the payment drew directly on foreign-currency reserves. The hearing was convened to examine bill 52-2026, approving an amendment to the central bank's credit agreement with the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank): a 500-million-dollar facility on which she said negotiators had brought the rate down to 5.86 percent from market levels above 9 percent for Tunisian risk. With no IMF programme in place, the government is covering the second half of the budget year through regional lenders, earmarking the money for fuel and medicine imports and for stalled public projects.