Tunis – Hayet al-Ghanami
The Tunisian economic expert, Murad Al-Hattab, said that the volume of large imports is what led to the current deficit and thus to lift support for some products.
He said in a statement to Arabs Today that some imported goods are unnecessary, such as the dough Baklava, of which Tunisia imported 4 million tons of it from Turkey in the month of Ramadan, in addition to the existence of unfair economic agreements such as Tunisia and Turkey agreement, which are considered economically unequal.
Al-Hattab added that the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United States issued a report that 37 Turkish companies are active in the field of food products, their products are not consumable and contain carcinogens, and he does not rule out the presence of some in Tunisia.
On the other hand, al-Hattab confirmed the lifting of the final support for electricity in Tunisia and the citizen is now buying it at its real price without support, indicating that the state was providing support to the Tunisian Electricity and Gas Company estimated at 291 million dinars, and was abandoned in 2017 but was not announced officially.
Al-Hattab added that the increase in fuel is not necessary, considering that the energy deficit, which amounted to 1081 million dinars is not catastrophic, as portrayed by some.
He pointed out that Tunisian imports have witnessed an unprecedented increase of 70.91 percent, in the past 10 years to 41766, in 2016, compared to 24437 million dinars in 2007, at a time when Tunisian exports were unable to cope with this upward trend.
Al-Hattab said that the economic system is based mainly on productivity that leads to investment, which drives the economic wheel and opens a job market. He pointed out that the current system suffers from chaos through the random supply, which estimated at 40 thousand billion. He considered that the basic solution to push the economy is to reduce supply.