Algeria Lends Tunisia $200M, Grants it $100M

The Tunisian Finance Ministry stated that the value of the loan granted by Algeria to Tunisia amounts to 200 million US dollars, to be paid over 15 years, including 5 grace years, and at a fixed annual interest rate of 1%.

In response to the Al-Bawsala organization regarding the donation, the ministry stated that “the financial assistance granted by Algeria to Tunisia amounts to 100 million US dollars.”

The non-governmental human rights organization “Al-Bawsala” said, in a post on its Facebook page, that it had obtained, on Monday, “a response from the Ministry of Finance regarding the value of the loan and financial assistance granted by the Algerian government to its Tunisian counterpart according to the agreement concluded between the two parties on December 1, 2022”, adding that “this response comes by the request for access to information that Al-Bawsala organization submitted to the Ministry of Finance on December 19, 2022.”

Algeria granted Tunisia a loan and donation on December 1, 2022, and on December 8, 2022, a presidential decree was issued in the Tunisian Official Gazette stating that “the financial protocol concluded in Algeria on December 1, 2022, between the government of the Republic of Tunisia and the government of the People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria, was ratified regarding the granting of a loan for the benefit of the Republic of Tunisia”, without revealing the value of the loan and the financial assistance, neither from the Algerian nor Tunisian side.

In recent days, contacts between the Tunisian and Algerian authorities have intensified at higher levels, and on November 26, Foreign Minister Ramtane Lamamra made a quick visit to Tunisia, carrying a message from President Abdelmadjid Tebboune to his Tunisian counterpart, Kais Saied.

Two days later, the Tunisian Prime Minister Najla Bouden went to Algeria to meet President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, on a visit that did not last more than one day, where she praised Algeria for standing with her country in the delicate circumstance it is going through.

Algeria has previously provided financial assistance to Tunisia, which is suffering from an economic and financial crisis that has been exacerbated by the repercussions of the Covid19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, in addition to the political instability the country is experiencing, including a financial loan of $300 million, which Algeria had provided on December 9, 2021, during the visit of the Prime Minister Aimene Benabderrahmane to Tunisia and a decision was issued in this regard in the Algerian Official Gazette.

In February 2020, Algeria made a financial deposit of $150 million that was placed in the Tunisian Central Bank, announced at the time by President Abdelmadjid Tebboune during the visit of Tunisian President Kais Saied to Algeria, and also announced a delay in the payment of financial dues owed by Tunisia in favour of Sonelgaz and Sonatrach, in return for exporting electricity and gas from Algeria to Tunisia.

The two countries have strong strategic relations, which was confirmed by President Tebboune in an interview with the national media last week, where Tebboune affirmed that Tunisia will not collapse and that it will emerge victorious from its crisis, asserting that; “Tunisian President Kais Saied is an honest, educated and nationalist person. We have the utmost respect for all the Tunisian people, and we will not allow interference in Tunisia’s affairs, neither for ourselves nor for any other party.”