Tunisia’s Central Bank said Thursday it had finalised a loan of half a billion dollars from Qatar, one of the main foreign backers of the revolution that brought the Islamists to power.The central bank said in a statement that the loan — at an interest rate of 2.5% — was to be repaid all at once in five years.
The Ennahda party won October polls that capped a popular revolt that ousted longtime president Zine el Abidine Ben Ali nine months earlier and sparked the Arab Spring.
The moderate Islamist party has excellent relations with Qatar and the coalition government it leads was also recently extended a $500-million credit line by Turkey.
The government is due to submit its economic programme to the constituent assembly, amid crippling unemployment and widespread disillusionment over post-revolution Tunisia.
