Tunisia's Central Bank: Loans Pumped into Economy Surge by 5%

The list of loans granted to the national economy in 2020 increased by 5%, compared to 3.1% in 2019, to reach 95,009 million dinars, according to the annual report of the Central Bank of Tunisia on banking supervision, issued on Friday.

This development is mainly explained by the procedures for postponing loan installments and the dynamism introduced by the exceptional procedures adopted by the government and the central bank.

The distribution by beneficiaries shows that the loans granted to professional businesses increased mainly due to the increase in the pledges of public institutions, which rose by 1.7 billion dinars in 2020, with a growth of 26.8%.

The report added that the loans benefited by private institutions only increased by 2.4% in 2020, the same rate recorded a year earlier, despite the postponement of loan installments and exceptional loans due to the pandemic.

The sectors of industry, commerce, real estate development and tourism, accounted for about 80% of the mentioned loans.

On the other hand, the central bank clarified that the volume of deferred loan installments amounted to 4.7 billion dinars at the end of 2020, obtained by 19,000 beneficiaries. The exceptional funds were estimated at about 2 billion dinars at the end of 2020 for 2,700 beneficiaries.

Inpiduals’ indebtedness was estimated at 25,452 million dinars at the end of December 2020, a growth of 5.8% compared to 0.4% in 2019.

This development is due to the postponement of the repayment of loans granted to inpiduals that were originally due and in excess, with a value of 1 billion dinars, and the rapid growth of consumer loans that affected in particular preparation loans for Housing and household expenses.