Improving purchasing power in Tunisia can no longer be limited to one-off salary increases. This is the clear observation drawn up by the Arab Institute of Business Leaders (IACE), which presented, this Tuesday, a detailed analysis of the economic and social situation during a meeting devoted to the 2026 finance bill.
According to IACE, the figures demonstrate a structural gap between household income and the real cost of living. The Institute recalls that the minimum wage guaranteed for the year 2025 amounts to 528 dinars, a level considered very low with regard to essential expenses. For comparison, the real monthly cost of living reaches around 1,200 dinars in rural areas. In urban areas, the average expenses of a household made up of two adults and two children vary between 3,000 and 3,500 dinars, and can rise up to 4,500 dinars for a more comfortable standard of living.
This financial pressure is largely explained by the growing weight of expenditure linked to education and health. The IACE emphasizes that a family devotes between 10 and 20% of its expenses to a single child in school. This rate increases sharply for households with two children in final grades, particularly during the baccalaureate period, where fees can represent between 30 and 40% of the family budget.
Deep reforms in education and public health.
Added to this are health expenses, which absorb on average between 5 and 8% of annual household income. In total, education and health mobilize nearly 30% of annual income, a level which prevents the middle class from building up savings and lastingly weakens its financial balance. In this context, the IACE believes that salary increases lose their meaning in the absence of profound reforms in education and public health.
On the macroeconomic level, data from the Central Bank of Tunisia indicate a stabilization of the inflation rate around 5%. However, this average masks a more worrying reality: the prices of non-staple food products continue to increase at a sustained rate, reaching 21%. A development that weighs heavily on the most vulnerable social categories, but also on the middle class.
The IACE also warns of the persistence of poverty, the rate of which has now reached 18%, as well as the worsening of inequalities. Figures reveal that 70% of the population holds only 10% of national wealth, an imbalance that threatens social cohesion.
Faced with this picture, the Institute calls for a change of approach in public policies. For the IACE, the preservation of purchasing power now requires a structural reform of social services, the only way to provide lasting relief to Tunisian households and restore consistency to any salary policy.
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