Indebtedness of non-financial companies down 50.1% in 2022 (INS)

Tunis: The indebtedness of non-financial companies, exclusively credit-based and generally averaging 52% of GDP over the period 2015-2020, fell to 50.1% in 2022, reads the "Indebtedness of non-financial economic agents: Reading in the financial accounts" report published recently by the National Institute of Statistics (INS). The net flow of loans raised by non-financial companies increased from TND 1.303 billion in 2015 to TND 6.6 billion in 2020, TND 1.21 billion in 2021 and TND 2.76 billion in 2022, due to the unprecedented context of 2020 and the deceleration of outstanding loans between 2021 and 2022, the INS explained. A sharp rise in net loans was also recorded in 2017, reaching TND 4.29 billion, accounting for 51% of their commitments during the year, compared with 20% in 2015. This was mainly due to the net acceleration in short-term loans granted to businesses during the same period and partly justified by the rise in the money market rate (MMR) from an average of 4.26% in 2016 to 5.23% in 2017, following the increase in the Central Bank's key rate by 100 basis points in 2017. Source: Agence Tunis Afrique Presse