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Tunisia needs around $2.85 billion in external financing this year and plans to issue a Sukuk Islamic bond worth around $500 million to help cover the deficit, Finance Minister Lamia Zribi told Reuters on Monday.<\/strong><\/p>\n Zribi also confirmed a Reuters report that Tunis plans to sell 1 billion euros’ worth of Eurobonds and hold a roadshow on Feb. 5. More Eurobond issues later in the year are possible depending on how the country’s external financing needs are covered, she said.<\/p>\n “After a delay of a few years, our plan this year is to issue $500 million to diversify our resources and cover the deficit of 2017,” Zribi told Reuters on the sidelines of a government development presentation, referring to the sukuk issue.<\/p>\n It is the first time the government has given details of the sukuk issue plan.<\/p>\n “We are going with 1 billion euros in the European market, and we will start with the roadshow on Feb. 5,” the minister said, confirming earlier reports on the initial Eurobond plan.<\/p>\n “If we don’t manage to fulfill our external financing needs of 6.5 billion dinars ($2.85 billion) then without a doubt we’ll go to capital markets again this year.”<\/p>\n Since its 2011 uprising that led to a transition to democracy, Tunisia has struggled to enact economic reforms meant to curb public spending and help create jobs, while two major militant attacks in 2015 hit its tourism industry, a major source of income.<\/p>\n A government source said last Thursday that the North African state would start a roadshow on Feb. 5 for a 1 billion Eurobond. He said the government could then go to capital markets twice more for a further 2 billion euros in total, although it was still undecided whether that would be in dollars or euros.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Tunisia needs $2.85 bln in external financing this year – finance minister Tunisia needs around $2.85 billion in external financing this year and plans to issue a Sukuk Islamic bond worth around $500 million to help cover the deficit, Finance Minister Lamia Zribi told Reuters on Monday. Zribi also confirmed a Reuters report that Tunis …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":81844,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-81836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-te-public"],"yoast_head":"\n