Abstract
The replacement of Bourguiba was in many ways the essential precondition for structural reform of the economy. The new president, Zine el Abidine Ben Ali, was able to begin the reformulation of political structures, removing obstacles to reform literally from the top down and building on the early, but limited, implementation of the 1986 Stand-by agreement. A strategy had already been devised which was subsequently to be carried out under two major development plans, those of 1987–91 and 1992–6. The first was intended on the one hand to achieve macro-economic stability, and on the other to introduce the initial measures of structural liberalization, particularly in terms of sectoral (including public sector), financial and trade reform. The second phase of liberalization, which would take place during the subsequent plan, would consolidate these measures, with legislative arrangements to encourage foreign investment, accelerate privatization, develop the stock market, and deepen integration with overseas, particularly European, markets. In sum, within the space of ten years, it was intended that the economy should be transformed into a market economy with only a marginal role for the state in production, distribution and exchange.
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Zine el Abidine Ben Ali’s Republic Day address, quoted in Middle East Economic Digest, 4 August 1989, p. 34.
Allowances to the 100 000 poorest families were increased by 15.8 per cent, to TD55 ($57) a quarter. Middle East Economic Digest, 6 September 1991, p. 30.
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The following primary institutions were created: the Presidential Council, the Committee of Ministers of Foreign Affairs, the Follow-up Committee, the General Secretariat, the Consultative Council and the Judicial Institution.
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Defined as per capita income less than TD278 in urban areas and TD139 in rural reas. Ministry of Social Affairs, The Tunisian Experience in theWar on Poverty (Copenhagen, 1995), paper prepared for World Summit for Social Development, p. 5.
Author’s calculations based on Ministry of Planning and Development figures quoted in S. Nsouli et al. (1993), p. 51.
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© 1999 Emma C. Murphy
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Murphy, E.C. (1999). Macroeconomic Stabilization and Early Economic Reform: The Seventh Development Plan, 1987–1991. In: Economic and Political change in Tunisia. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780333983584_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780333983584_5
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