The Tunisian government has announced new plans to grow the country’s economy in the coming year. Authorities say the country would borrow up to $7 billion from both foreign lenders and domestic sources.

Tunisia’s finance minister Sihem Boughdiri said the country’s new finance laws would boost national spending by over three percent year on year to $19.8 billion.

“The budget deficit, excluding donations, will be within 9.3 billion dinars. The deficit is expected to hit some 6.7 percent of gross domestic product.”

” The result is a need for financing as you know, and as in every year, and the need is estimated at 18.673 billion dinars in addition to a treasury need of 1.310 million dinars.”

This coupled with years of economic woes worsened by covid 19, would bring the government’s debt to 82.6 percent of GDP.

Boughdiri confirmed the government is also hoping to reach a bailout deal with the International Monetary Fund. “Negotiations with the IMF will restart at the beginning of 2022.”

Tunisia’s previous government had been in talks with the IMF over a new bailout package.

A deal with the global lender could entail politically painful reforms, such as cutting subsidies on basic goods or tackling the wage bill of a public sector that employs some 680,000 of the country’s 12 million inhabitants.