Public Debt Reaches 135.154.9 Billion Dinars by End of March 2025
As of the end of March 2025, Tunisia's public debt stood at 135.154.9 billion dinars, a slight increase of 122.6 billion dinars compared to December 2024. The debt denominated in dinars represents 57.0% of the total, amounting to 77.049.7 billion dinars. Compared to the end of 2021, the debt has increased by 86.8%. The acceleration of indebtedness is due to the intensification of national borrowing mechanisms and direct facilities from the Central Bank of Tunisia.
For the 7,000 billion dinars authorized this year, utilization has not exceeded the threshold of 2,650 billion dinars over the first three months of 2025, leaving a comfortable margin of maneuver for the rest of the year in case of need.
External Debt
The outstanding external debt reached 58,105.2 billion dinars. This represents a decrease of 8,769 billion dinars since the peak at the end of 2023. This trend, primarily under the impetus of a political decision to reduce reliance on external resources, has enabled the reduction of foreign borrowing to 43.0% of the total outstanding debt, compared to 60.4% at the end of 2021.**
The majority of this debt is of a multilateral nature (68.8%) compared to 23.2% bilateral. Private debt represents only 8.2%. By currency, 60.2% of this debt is denominated in euros, compared to 26.3% in dollars and 6.5% in yen.
Debt Reduction
Since the beginning of the year, there has been a net debt reduction of 2,259.8 billion dinars, including 409.5 billion dinars on the local market. The reduction in debt comes from the external debt, with a net reduction of 2,669.3 billion dinars.
Outlook
We believe that with what we are currently observing, in terms of the Treasury's borrowing behavior, the outstanding debt will not reach the estimated amount of 147,402 billion dinars as per the 2025 finance law. While this means an additional dose of flexibility in the coming years, it also means less growth for this year. The State remains the main economic operator, and less private investment deprives it of the multiplier effect that would have been produced by the private sector.
