Last month's publication of the results of the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) annual audit of the Tunisian economy had the effect of an electric shock in Carthage Palace. In unusually frank terms, the fund's economists indicated that, in 2020, Tunisia suffered the "the largest economic downturn since the country's independence". GDP contracted 8.2% and external debt rose to 95% of GDP - 10 percentage points more than in 2017. This first alarm signal was immediately followed by another, as ratings