Economy

As the sole success story of the Arab Spring, Tunisia has emerged as an emblematic model of democratic transition in what can be an unstable region, which has further burnished the country’s diplomatic influence.

Tunisia consistently ran a fairly small current account deficit for most of the late 2000s, with the figure standing in the low single digits as a percentage of GDP. However, as with many economic indicators, the deficit worsened significantly in the years immediately following the country’s revolution, jumping to 7.4% in 2011 and peaking at 9...

Home of the ancient city of Carthage, present-day Tunisia has a long and distinguished history. Its location at the centre of North Africa, close to vital shipping routes in the Mediterranean, ensured it became a hub for control over the region for successive ruling elites, including the Berbers, Phoenicians, Romans, and Arab and Ottoman...

While the MENA start-up scene remains small, Tunisia is emerging as one of the region’s key centres for entrepreneurship, as underscored by the rapid growth in recent years in the number of incubators and accelerators operating in the country. Developing the domestic start-up scene, and entrepreneurship more generally, has the potential to...