On June 3, Tunisia signed with the USA a loan guarantee agreement to obtain $500 million at low cost on international financial markets, minister of finance, Slim Chanker announced.

“It is a $500 million loan which is to be reimbursed over five years. The American guarantee should bring the interest rate to 2% or less, instead of 6 to 7% if we had gone to the loan market ourselves,” Chaker said.

“The contract aims to support Tunisia as it implements major economic reforms to build the foundation for a prosperous and developing economy,” the US State department said in a statement.

Since the popular uprising that overthrew President Ben Ali in January 2011, Tunisia has benefited from two US loan guarantees, one in 2011 for $485 million and another in 2014 for $500 million.

More than five years after the fall of Ben Ali’s regime, Tunisia still struggles to restart its economy which is crippled by political troubles, unceasing social movements, and repeated terrorist attacks. In 2015, Tunisia’s economy grew by less than 1%.

In May 2016, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced that is has approved a new 4-year aid plan to provide Tunisia $2.88 billion.