WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday said he would like to see Tunisia present a revised reform plan to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), adding that it is clear Tunisia needs additional assistance.
“We very much would welcome the Tunisian government presenting a revised reform plan to the IMF and for the IMF to be able to act on the plan presented, but these are sovereign decisions,” Blinken said at a press conference with Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani at the State Department.
“It’s clear that Tunisia needs additional assistance if it is going to avoid falling off the proverbial economic cliff.”
Tunisia’s bailout talks with the International Monetary Fund have looked stalled for months, and there is little sign President Kais Saied is willing to agree to the steps needed to reach a deal and help the country avoid a financial crisis.
Tunisia reached a staff-level agreement with the fund in September for a $1.9 billion loan, but it has missed key commitments and donors believe the state’s finances are increasingly diverging from the figures upon which the deal was calculated.
Without a loan, Tunisia faces a full-blown balance of payments crisis. Most debt is internal but there are foreign loan repayments due later this year, and credit ratings agencies have said Tunisia may default.
Blinken’s comments on Monday come after the European Union said on Sunday it may loan Tunisia over 1 billion euros ($1.07 billion) to help develop its battered economy, rescue state finances and deal with a migration crisis, with most funds contingent on it agreeing economic reforms.
The offer was announced by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen during a visit to Tunisia along with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who is anxious about migration across the Mediterranean.
Their effort, spurred by increasing concerns in Europe about Tunisia’s stability, is part of a last-ditch push by major donors to persuade Saied to agree to the IMF bailout’s terms.
(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk, Susan Heavey and Daphne Psaledakis; Editing by Alex Richardson)
