Tunisia’s Central Bank sets up “watch unit” to monitor repercussions of recent financial crisis
Tunis, October 7, 2008- During a press point given on Monday in Tunis, Mr Taoufik Baccar, the Governor of the Central Bank, announced that a “watch unit” had been set up “to closely monitor the repercussions of the recent international financial crisis, and eventually to take action so as to preserve the achievements of the Tunisian economy”.
He also said that on the initiative of the President of the Republic, an evaluation commission had been set up and several measures had been taken both in the management of the country’s foreign currency reserves and in the legislation related to housing loans.
Analysing the origins of the current crisis, Mr Baccar said that the choices made by Tunisia by opting for a gradual convertibility of the dinar and the universal bank, had strengthened the country’s banking system. He added that Tunisia had very early measured the seriousness of the situation by abstaining from launching any initiatives on the international financial market in 2008 and by advising the Government not to do so in 2009, mobilizing instead the necessary resources of the State budget exclusively on the local market.
He also pointed out that following a measure taken by President Ben Ali early in 2008, the maturity of loans granted by the Tunisian Housing Bank (Banque de l’Habitat) had been extended from 15 to 25 years, adding that Tunisia had opted from the start for fixed interest rates, so as to preserve the reimbursement capacity of households while safeguarding them against any eventual future increase of interest rates.
He also noted that the ratio of foreign capital participation in the Tunis stock exchange does not exceed 25%, which are held by reference shareholders and not by financial investors, a fact he added which gives it a certain stability and protects it, in theory from “risks of contagion”.
Concerning the indirect consequences of the crisis, the Governor of the Central Bank said that if the world economy enters into recession, its impact will also be felt on the Tunisian economy, adding that the Tunisian economy is an open economy and that no country can escape the repercussions of the current crisis which some economists have compared to 1929.
Mr Baccar added that 2009 forecasts are tabling on a 6% growth of the Tunisian economy, instead of 5,1% in 2008, a fact which is due to the increase of foreign demand and which involves the strengthening of our competitive capacity, he said.
