{
  "title": "Response to The Guardian's Opinion Piece on Tunisia",
  "publication": "IMF Blog, January 18, 2018",
  "sourceUrl": "https://www.imf.org/en/blogs/articles/2018/01/18/vc01182018-response-to-guardian-article",
  "canonical": "https://www.imf.org/en/blogs/articles/2018/01/18/vc01182018-response-to-guardian-article",
  "overlayPath": "/en/blogs/articles/2018/01/18/vc01182018-response-to-guardian-article/index.md",
  "summary": "Publication date: January 18, 2018",
  "sections": [
    {
      "heading": "Context and opening",
      "content": "- Publication date: January 18, 2018\n- From Gerry Rice, Head of Communications at the IMF\n- Purpose: Reply to Jihen Chandoul’s January 17 article and correct perceived misstatements about Tunisia’s economic situation and the IMF’s policy stance"
    },
    {
      "heading": "Diagnosis of Tunisia’s economic situation",
      "content": "- Tunisia’s fragile economic condition results from both external shocks and domestic policy choices:\n  - External shocks cited include terrorist attacks and weak growth in Europe\n  - Domestic factor: a model of state patronage in which the public sector provides every fifth job\n  - Tunisia has an outsized wage bill—among the highest in the world—which represents almost half of Tunisia’s total budget\n  - The large wage bill has come at the expense of social programs for the vulnerable"
    },
    {
      "heading": "Link between reforms, growth, and fairness",
      "content": "- Jobs and fairness will come with economic growth\n- Growth will come with improved business and investor confidence, which in turn will come once Tunisia can:\n  - cut its deficits\n  - control debt\n  - control inflation\n- These objectives are described as the rationale underlying the government’s 2018 budget, which in addition to strengthening tax revenue, aims at:\n  - funding pensions on a more sustainable basis\n  - maintaining public investment levels\n  - increasing spending on social programs"
    },
    {
      "heading": "IMF policy stance and principles",
      "content": "- The IMF does not advocate austerity\n- The IMF advocates well-designed, well-implemented, socially-balanced reforms\n- The IMF has consistently highlighted the need to:\n  - spread the adjustment burden in a fair way\n  - protect the most vulnerable from the effects of adjustment"
    },
    {
      "heading": "Specific policy recommendations and measures emphasized",
      "content": "- Maintain subsidies on basic food products\n- Increase taxes on products mostly consumed by the more affluent\n- Strengthen tax collection\n- Crack down on tax evasion\n- Ensure any reduction in wage reliance is based on voluntary departure and early retirement schemes, not mandatory layoffs"
    },
    {
      "heading": "Risks of reversing reforms",
      "content": "- Reversing the reforms currently underway will increase the bill, which will grow and fall on future generations\n\nIMF blog post — Response to The Guardian's Opinion Piece on Tunisia (January 18, 2018) by Gerry Rice\n\n---\n\n\n References\n\n- Jobs and fairness will come with economic growth\n- You can find more information on the IMF and Tunisia here.\n\nSource: https://www.imf.org/en/blogs/articles/2018/01/18/vc01182018-response-to-guardian-article"
    }
  ],
  "bullets": [
    "[Markdown version](/en/blogs/articles/2018/01/18/vc01182018-response-to-guardian-article/index.md)",
    "[Structured JSON version](/en/blogs/articles/2018/01/18/vc01182018-response-to-guardian-article/index.json)",
    "[Bundle manifest](/en/blogs/articles/2018/01/18/vc01182018-response-to-guardian-article/bundle-manifest.json)",
    "Published: January 18, 2018",
    "Publication date: January 18, 2018",
    "From Gerry Rice, Head of Communications at the IMF",
    "Purpose: Reply to Jihen Chandoul’s January 17 article and correct perceived misstatements about Tunisia’s economic situation and the IMF’s policy stance",
    "Tunisia’s fragile economic condition results from both external shocks and domestic policy choices:",
    "Jobs and fairness will come with economic growth",
    "Growth will come with improved business and investor confidence, which in turn will come once Tunisia can:",
    "These objectives are described as the rationale underlying the government’s 2018 budget, which in addition to strengthening tax revenue, aims at:",
    "The IMF does not advocate austerity",
    "The IMF advocates well-designed, well-implemented, socially-balanced reforms",
    "The IMF has consistently highlighted the need to:",
    "Maintain subsidies on basic food products",
    "Increase taxes on products mostly consumed by the more affluent",
    "Strengthen tax collection",
    "Crack down on tax evasion",
    "Ensure any reduction in wage reliance is based on voluntary departure and early retirement schemes, not mandatory layoffs",
    "Reversing the reforms currently underway will increase the bill, which will grow and fall on future generations",
    "[Jobs and fairness will come with economic growth](https://blogs.imf.org/2018/01/18/economic-growth-and-fairness-in-the-middle-east-and-north-africa/)",
    "[You can find more information on the IMF and Tunisia here.](http://www.imf.org/en/countries/tunisia/qanda/tunisia-qandas)"
  ],
  "alternates": {
    "markdown": "/en/blogs/articles/2018/01/18/vc01182018-response-to-guardian-article/index.md",
    "json": "/en/blogs/articles/2018/01/18/vc01182018-response-to-guardian-article/index.json",
    "bundleManifest": "/en/blogs/articles/2018/01/18/vc01182018-response-to-guardian-article/bundle-manifest.json"
  },
  "generatedAtUtc": "2026-08-27T19:43:06.014Z"
}