Tunisian leader fires economy minister who backed IMF deal
Tunisian President Kais Saied has fired Economy and Planning Minister Samir Saied, who advocated for a bailout from the International Monetary Fund for the cash-strapped North African country.
“The President of the Republic, Kais Saied, decided to terminate the duties of Mr. Samir Saied, Minister of Economy and Planning, and also decided to assign Ms. Siham Al-Boughdiri Namsieh, Minister of Finance, to run the Ministry of Economy and Planning on a temporary basis,” the presidency said in a statement on Tuesday.
The reason for the decision to fire Saied was not given.
His dismissal came just days after he represented Tunisia at the annual meetings of the IMF and World Bank in Marrakech, Morocco.
Tunisia has been grappling with economic difficulties for more than a decade, dating back to the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings. Last year, the government reached a staff-level deal with the IMF for a $1.9 billion loan, but it has yet to meet key commitments required to secure the lender’s final approval.
The Tunisian president has repeatedly rejected the bailout terms, calling them unacceptable “foreign diktats” that will exacerbate poverty and cause social unrest.
The president had warned the minister, who took office in October 2021, over his opposing statements demanding an agreement with the IMF. Earlier this month, the Tunisian leader instructed the minister to base his economic planning on the country’s policies and to reject “diktats.”
However, just before his dismissal on Tuesday, Samir Saied told TAP news agency that “lenders are wondering about Tunisia’s talks with the IMF” and that “any deal would give a strong signal to the rest of the financiers.”
