Tunisia seeks to borrow €500m from EU as US offers to guarantee loans

Tunisia is negotiating to borrow up to €500 million from the European Union, and the US has also expressed willingness to guarantee loans in 2014, the country’s finance minister told the state news agency.

Tunisia’s budget deficit should narrow to 6.5% next year, from 7.4% of GDP expected in 2013, as the Islamist-led government seeks to impose strict new fiscal measures, finance minister Elyess Fakhfakh said.

The assassination of two opposition figures has prompted Tunisia’s worst political crisis since autocratic leader Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali was toppled more than two years ago in the first of the Arab Spring uprisings.