Tunisia – For weeks, Adel has been attending a daily appointment with his wooden chair and small table in a popular café in his neighborhood in Tunis. Here he spends most of his time after losing his job in a factory specializing in the manufacture of automobile spare parts.
The absence of raw materials imported from abroad, which the factory relies on in production, prompted it to reduce its activity and then lay off a number of workers.
Adel told Al Jazeera Net, while sipping his coffee silently: “I used to sit here only on the weekends, but now all my days are the same.”
Despite three months of unemployment, signs of relief are present in Adel’s speech, as he adds: “I got a new job, and I will start next week.” This time, he will benefit from his previous experience to work in distributing spare parts between Tunisian governorates.
But what was available to Adel does not seem to be available to many others. In a country where the unemployment rate exceeds 15%, according to figures from the National Institute of Statistics, dozens of his colleagues are still searching for a new source of livelihood, amid an ongoing economic crisis and increasing pressure on the country’s foreign currency reserves.
For years, Tunisia has been facing growing difficulties in providing foreign exchange, as a result of rising imports, slow economic growth, and weak investment, in addition to a declining ability to provide external financing.
Restrictions on imports
A recent circular issued by the Central Bank of Tunisia sparked widespread controversy in economic circles, after it imposed strict restrictions on financing the imports of a number of products classified as “non-priority.”
Circular No. 4 of 2026, issued on March 26, prohibits banks from providing credit facilities or financing to import a list of goods, unless the importer covers the full value of the goods in cash before starting the supply process.
The decision includes tourist cars, clothing, textiles, and food products such as cheese, tropical fruits, dry fruits, honey, and sweets, in addition to soft drinks, mineral water, and some types of fish and crustaceans.
The Tunisian Central Bank says that these measures aim to “rationalize imports and preserve the country’s foreign exchange reserves.” However, economic actors believe that the decision places thousands of enterprises facing severe financial difficulties, especially small and medium enterprises that depend on bank financing to continue their activities.
Search for the dollar
Inside the headquarters of a technology startup, Mustafa Riahi talks about the daily difficulties his organization faces in providing foreign currency.
Al-Riahi told Al Jazeera Net that the funding ceiling allocated to technology companies “does not actually allow for expansion or competition,” explaining that the state gives them about 10,000 dinars annually ($3,000), an amount he considers insufficient to purchase technical equipment or market digital products and services.
He adds: “We work in an open market, but the restrictions imposed on foreign exchange make developing the activity almost impossible.”
Missing medications
The repercussions of the crisis are not limited to factories and companies, but also extend to pharmacies. In recent months, Tunisian Internet pages and groups have repeatedly posted posts by citizens searching for missing medicines, or asking for help to bring them from abroad.
Testimonies from a number of pharmacists indicate the loss of dozens of types of medicines, some of which are linked to chronic and serious diseases. The shortage is mainly related to imported medicines that the state provides through the central pharmacy.
In this context, the head of the Private Pharmacy Owners Syndicate, Zubair Qaiqa, told Al Jazeera Net that holding international pharmaceutical laboratories responsible for the loss of medicines is “an unrealistic proposition.”
He added: “International laboratories are profit-making companies that deal with a clear logic. They give money and take the medicine,” stressing that the relationship with them is mainly linked to paying dues and respecting payment deadlines.
Tunisian markets have also recently witnessed a shortage of other materials such as coffee, sugar, and vegetable oil, which experts link to a decline in supply operations and increasing pressure on foreign exchange reserves.
Reserve under pressure
Data from the National Institute of Statistics indicate that the trade balance deficit increased during the first quarter of 2026 to about 7.5 billion dinars ($2.5 billion), compared to 7.2 billion ($2.4 billion) in the same period last year, as a result of an increase in the value of imports by 7.9%.
On the other hand, a report by the Central Bank of Tunisia on the monetary and financial situation as of April 30, 2026 revealed that the country’s foreign currency reserves amounted to 25.1 billion dinars ($8.6 billion), covering 104 days of imports.
Economists believe that Tunisia, as a country with limited foreign exchange resources, is moving towards tightening its protectionist policy to preserve foreign currency reserves.
Economist Sami Al-Arfawi said in a statement to Al Jazeera Net that caution in managing foreign exchange “has become a necessity in light of the current situation,” but he considers that being satisfied with a strict policy does not represent a long-term solution.
Al-Arfawi adds that overcoming the crisis requires “pushing investment and export as the most important source of increasing the state’s foreign currency income,” warning that continuing restrictions without broader economic reforms may exacerbate the recession and limit growth opportunities.
Traditional sources of income
In the face of this pressure on foreign exchange reserves, Tunisia is betting on a number of traditional resources to support its foreign currency coffers, most notably remittances from Tunisians abroad and revenues from the tourism sector.
According to official data, remittances from Tunisians residing abroad amounted to about 2.9 billion dinars ($999 million) during the first four months of 2026, while tourism revenues recorded about 1.8 billion dinars ($620 million) in the same period.
Tunisia also depends on exports of some agricultural products, such as olive oil and citrus fruits, in addition to phosphate exports, as they are among the most prominent sources of foreign exchange flow into the country.
Between cafes filled with unemployed people, pharmacies with customers searching for lost medicines, and companies struggling to secure the dollar, the foreign exchange crisis in Tunisia appears to be more than just financial numbers or banking procedures. It is a crisis that is directly reflected in the details of daily life, in a country that is trying to balance protecting its monetary reserves and keeping the wheel of its economy turning, amid growing fears that the citizen, the weakest link, will pay the cost of this difficult balance.
