Press Release
O Minister: Do we put a “summer watermelon” and the International Monetary Fund and its deadly doses kill us?!
(Translated)

In a dialogue with him on The Sun FM, Thursday 26 December 2019, the Minister Tawfeeq Al-Rajhi who was assigned for major reforms said that indeed “there is no comment for the sixth tranche of the IMF loan to Tunisia”, in response to the threat from the representative Jerome Vacher, not to spend the next two installments of the extended loan (1.2 billion dinars) due to the lack of progress in implementing the economic reforms that Tunisia pledged to the fund.

The minister added that the 2020 budget needs to be filled with loans worth 11.2 billion dinars to pay approximately 8 billion dinars of the main debt and 3 billion dinars for the services of the debt, but he assured the Tunisian people with the colloquial accent, which means: “When you have the International Monetary Fund, “put a summer watermelon in your stomach” and relax. This is because it represents a positive signal for the global markets and other international institutions, as he put it, calling on "the people of Tunisia to be proud of the testimony of the international institutions in considering Tunisia having made progress in major reforms."

One would not be able to describe this political class that rules the country. How would you describe a fatal poison with still waters?! How do you invite people to be proud of the testimony of obedience and subordination to colonialism, at a time when everyone knows that the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank are colonial institutions for the major countries to interfere in the affairs of the countries of the world by dumping them in the debt spiral and imposing economic dependency on them?! Poverty has increased and problems multiplied wherever they are solved. Our country, Tunisia, is a perfect example of this, as the country is borrowing to pay off previous loans, as Al-Rajhi himself affirmed.

The dictates of the International Monetary Fund in Tunisia have harmed this country and its people during the past five reviews, as the devaluation of the dinar exchange against the dollar by nearly 50% or more - by the order of IMF-exacerbated the deficit in the trade balance, caused an increase in inflation and high prices, and the gradual support increase in the framework of the “automatic adjustment” of the prices agreed upon between the government and the fund since the conclusion of the concessional loan agreement in 2016, hydrocarbons must increase by 24 percent in the hydrocarbon price and warn of a similar percentage in 2020.

The dictates of the International Monetary Fund also led to increased taxes, unemployment, pressure on expenditures etc. and the consequent deterioration in the service of public facilities such as health, education, and security in addition to proceeding to neglect public institutions and be managed by the foreign capitalist.

This is just the tip of the flood of lethal doses that successive governments followed after falling into that trap of debt that exceeded 82.6 billion dinars, equivalent to 71.1% of GDP.

Allah (swt) said the truth in the verse:

[مَا يَوَدُّ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا مِنْ أَهْلِ الْكِتَابِ وَلا الْمُشْرِكِينَ أَنْ يُنزلَ عَلَيْكُمْ مِنْ خَيْرٍ مِنْ رَبِّكُمْ]

“Neither those who disbelieve among the people of the Scripture (Jews and Christians) nor Al-Mushrikun (the disbelievers in the Oneness of Allah, idolaters, polytheists, pagans, etc.) like that there should be sent down unto you any good from your Lord.” [al-Baqara:105]

Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir in Wilayah Tunisia