Standing in entrance of a smartphone store close to Tunisia’s capital Tunis, Olfa Meriah seems to be pissed off. How can she purchase a telephone in installments, she wonders, when a brand new banking reform has made cut up funds almost unimaginable?
In Tunisia, the place the typical month-to-month wage hovers simply round 1,000 dinars ($320), folks have lengthy relied on post-dated cheques to make purchases by paying in increments over months.
Unlike many different nations the place cheques at the moment are hardly ever seen within the period of prompt on-line funds, the tradition of paying by cheque persists in Tunisia.
But as a part of banking reforms launched in February, the federal government seeks to bolster the unique function of cheques as a method of fast fee. Cheques had successfully grow to be a type of credit score usually tolerated by retailers.
Unlike debit playing cards, bank cards will not be broadly accessible within the north African nation.
The new regulation formally goals at “curbing consumer debt” and “improving the business climate” in an economic system whose actual gross home product (GDP) progress, based on the International Monetary Fund (IMF), is projected at simply 1.6% for 2025.
But many really feel it has additionally begun disrupting family budgets and small companies.
Ridha Chkoundali, a college professor and economist, stated the brand new regulation “could be the last straw” for consumption and financial progress.
He stated the measure upsets Tunisians’ customary client habits, with primarily the center class bearing its brunt.
“Since it came out, I’ve been searching for ways to pay for a smartphone over several months without it eating away my salary,” stated Meriah, 43. “But the new cheques don’t allow that.”
Once a vital pillar of Tunisia’s financial and social stability, the center class made up round 60% of the inhabitants earlier than the nation’s 2011 revolution.
Experts now estimate it has fallen by greater than half to 25%.
‘Got money? Welcome’
Leila, the proprietor of the smartphone store within the Tunis-area district of Ariana, advised Agence France-Presse (AFP) that her gross sales have fallen by greater than half after she began taking money solely.
“No one buys anything anymore,” stated Leila, who did not give her final title. “We didn’t understand the law because it’s complicated and we don’t trust it. We decided not to accept cheques anymore.”
“Got cash? Welcome. If not, I’m sorry,” she summed up.
Consumers are underneath much more stress throughout the present Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan.
Tunisians have a tendency to purchase extra throughout Ramadan, stocking up on meals and sweets as households collect for collective meals earlier than and after their daytime fasting.
And as Eid al-Fitr – the vacation marking the tip of Ramadan – approaches on the finish of March, purchasing for garments and items rises.
Many retailers had already grown reluctant to cope with cheques when the earlier finance regulation ordered harsh jail sentences for cheque kiting – the fraudulent apply of issuing cheques with non-existent funds.
Last April, judicial authorities stated they had been investigating greater than 11,000 bad-cheque instances.
This 12 months’s reform is supposed to scale back these instances. Based on the customer’s earnings and property, it has launched a cap on the quantity that cheques might be written for.
It additionally permits the service provider to verify if the payer has sufficient funds upon every transaction by scanning a QR code on their cheque.
‘Another recession’
Many really feel the measure is intrusive, and the technological shift already provides a degree of complexity.
Badreddine Daboussi, who owns one among Tunis’s oldest bookstores advised AFP the change has crippled his gross sales, including to an already waning demand for books.
“Before, customers paid with post-dated cheques, but now they can’t, and the new online tool is complicated and unreliable.”
“They just can’t buy books anymore,” he added, noting he had even thought-about closing up store.
Tunisia, a rustic of greater than 12 million folks, has lengthy suffered sporadic shortages of fundamental gadgets akin to milk, sugar and flour.
Its nationwide debt has risen to round 80% of GDP and inflation is at 6% based on official figures.
Hamza Meddeb, a analysis fellow on the Malcolm H Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut, wrote in October that President Kais Saied – who rejected IMF reforms – has engaged in “economic improvisation” with “heavy reliance on domestic debt.”
Chkoundali, the opposite analyst, warned of “another recession.”
“As consumption shrinks, the already little economic growth we have will also decline,” he stated.
Unemployment is already at 16% nationwide, based on official figures.
Feeble consumption would assist push that determine even increased, Chkoundali defined, with employees risking vital layoffs as income dwindle.
Source: www.dailysabah.com