Tunisian Prime Minister Najla Ramadan affirmed her country's keenness to continue working with the Arab Monetary Fund to develop cooperation relations.

This came during a meeting of the Prime Minister, on Friday, with the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Arab Monetary Fund, Abdul Rahman bin Abdullah Al-Hamidi, in the presence of the Governor of the Central Bank of Tunisia, Marwan Al-Abbasi.

The Prime Minister expressed her satisfaction with the good level of cooperation relations existing between Tunisia and the Arab Monetary Fund, stressing her country's keenness to continue working to develop these relations.

A statement by the Prime Minister stated that Najla Ramadan thanked the Arab Monetary Fund for standing by Tunisia in this delicate and difficult circumstance, especially since it was the first institution to express its support for the national reform program and to agree to grant a loan to Tunisia.
This meeting comes after the signing of the "regular loan" agreement between the Republic of Tunisia and the Arab Monetary Fund.
On Friday, the Central Bank of Tunisia announced the signing of an ordinary loan agreement with the Arab Monetary Fund, worth 19.175 million dinars, or about $74 million.
The Central Bank stated, in a statement, that according to this agreement, the loan will be withdrawn in three installments directed entirely to support the state budget, with the first payment, estimated at about $37 million, to be withdrawn during the next week, adding that the loan will be repaid over five years, including a period of time. A deadline of two and a half years.

The statement added that the first installment of this loan will be withdrawn through the "Bunni" platform, which is the first regional platform aimed at enhancing Arab payments in the fields of investment, trade and financial transfers between Arab countries. This is the first time that the Tunisian state will use this mechanism.

The statement clarified that this loan aims to support the fiscal adjustment program derived from the Tunisian reform program in its aspect related to rebalancing the financial balance and reducing the balance of payments deficit.

The agreement was signed by the Governor of the Central Bank of Tunisia, Marouane Al-Abbasi, the Governor of the Republic of Tunisia at the Arab Monetary Fund on behalf of the Tunisian government, and the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Arab Monetary Fund, Abd al-Rahman bin Abdullah al-Hamidi, on the occasion of his working visit to Tunisia on November 3, 4 and 5.

During the visit, they discussed ways to pay inter-Arab financial transactions and urged Tunisian banks to join the "Bunni" platform for Arab payments.

It is noteworthy that the "ordinary loan" is one of the mechanisms (loans and facilities) provided by the Arab Monetary Fund to its member countries in a soft and varied manner.
source agencies