Tunisia Credit Growth Spurs Economic Recovery Ahead of Vote: Arab Credit - Bloomberg

Tunisia, the birth place of the so- called Arab Spring, may stage a faster economic recovery than other countries that witnessed uprisings in the region this year, helped by a surge in bank lending.

Tunisians head to the polls on Oct. 23 to elect an assembly that will write a new constitution after the revolt that toppled President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in January. The new government may encourage banks to boost lending to support growth, said Chokri Jaoua, head of operational management at Banque Internationale Arabe de Tunisie, the country’s biggest publicly traded bank known as BIAT.

The central bank’s decision to cut its key interest rate twice and slash reserve requirements helped credit grow 10.5 percent in the first nine months of 2011. Egyptian bank credit expanded 3.8 percent in the first seven months, central bank data show, as a breakdown in security and sectarian clashes led companies to scale back expansion plans. In Bahrain, credit will rise 1 percent this year, according to HSBC Holdings Plc.

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