Moody’s Visits Amidst Conflict Between Presidency and Central Bank

A delegation of experts representing the international credit rating agency Moody’s arrived today in Tunisia for a two day visit in preparation of its annual review of Tunisia’s creditworthiness.

According to TAP, during its mission the delegation will pay particular attention to the country’s major economic sectors, such as tourism, manufacturing, services, and agriculture. In addition, Moody’s representatives will not only analyze the current economic situation, but also formulate their forecasts for Tunisia’s economic health next year.

The delegation will hold several meetings with government officials, bankers, and investors in order to evaluate the government’s monetary policy and specifically how it is managing inflation, external debt, the state budget and the banking sector, reported TAP. Moody’s will also look at the measures that the government has taken to invigorate the local business environment.

Moody’s visit comes in the aftermath of last week’s announcement by the Presidency’s office of that Mustapha Kamel Nabli, the Governor of the Central Bank of Tunisia, would be removed from his position by the government. Some finance experts argue that the current conflict between Nabli and President Moncef Marzouki may have a negative effect on Moody’s rating of Tunisia.

The last time that one of the three major global rating agencies gave its verdict on Tunisia’s creditworthiness was on May 23 when Standard & Poor’s Rating Services downgraded Tunisia’s credit rating to junk status.