Under the directives of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz and Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister, the Saudi Minister of Finance Mohammed Al-Jadaan and his Tunisian counterpart Siham Al-Boughdiri inked on Thursday in Tunisia a $400 million concessional loan deal and a $100 million grant.

Jadaan noted that this affirms the deeply rooted fraternal ties between both countries’ leaderships and people.

He added that Saudi Arabia would continue to work toward furthering cooperation with Tunisia on several fronts, and he noted that the Kingdom had provided the North African country’s public treasury with a $500 million cash loan in 2019.

Al-Jadaan said the financial package formed part of the Kingdom’s efforts to support the development and economies of Arab and Islamic countries.

“This will support the stability and prosperity of the Tunisian economy and will help pave the way for further financial support for Tunisia from regional and international financial institutions,” Al-Jadaan concluded.

The talks between Tunisia and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on a $1.9 billion loan proposal have been stalled since October after Tunisian President Kais Saied rejected the economic body’s loan stipulations.

Tunisia is on the verge of a major debt crisis and suffers from a basic commodity shortage. Most of its debts are internal but there are foreign loans dues later this year. Credit rating agencies expected Tunisia to fall short of paying debts.