Tunisia's Global Integration : Second Generation of Reforms to Boost Growth and Employment

World Bank

Washington, DC

关键词: ACCESS TO INFORMATION;    ACCOUNTING;    ACTIVE DEBT;    AGRICULTURE;    ANTI-COMPETITIVE PRACTICES;   

RP-ID  :  40129

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

This report addresses the followingissues: Chapter one takes stock of the integration policiesimplemented since the early 1970s and assessed their impacton foreign direct investments (FDI), exports and employment.Chapter two looks at today's major challenges in themanufacturing sector and the specific policies needed toaddress them. Chapter three assesses the entry, business,and trade restrictions in Tunisia's key backboneservices sectors (telecommunication, banking, air transport,accounting, auditing, and legal services) using awell-focused regulatory questionnaire. The restrictivenessindices calculated from the regulatory questionnaire arethen used to benchmark Tunisia against Organisation forEconomic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and someemerging economies and to simulate the impact of variousliberalization options on the price of services and theeconomy via a multi-region general equilibrium model.Finally, chapter four examines the prospect for increasingexports and off shoring of a large number of services forwhich Tunisia has demonstrated a strong capacity for exportin recent years. The significant increase in real incomes inTunisia is the result of solid gross domestic product (GDP)growth since the mid-1960s (5 percent a year), low inflationand the demographic transition, faster than in neighboringcountries. In 1996-2007, economic growth has exhibitedgreater resilience to moderate exogenous shocks, thanks toprudent macroeconomic management public debt declined from62.4 percent in 2001 to 50.9 percent of GDP in 2007 thanksto pro-active debt management. The resulting decline in thedebt service since 2005 combined with steady GDP growthallowed the government to 'protect' capitalexpenditures and key social spending within the context oflow but structural fiscal deficit. While the current accountremained in deficit over the last 10 years, foreign exchangereserves increased steadily thanks to increasing FDIinflows. In 2007, international reserves increased by US$ 1billion to US$ 7.8 billion, representing 4.6 months ofimports of goods and services.