IMF to start talks with Tunisia over new loan programme: official

A delegation from the International Monetary Fund will visit Tunisia on Thursday to begin talks on a new credit programme likely to be worth at least $1.7 billion, a Tunisian official said. Tunisia is seeking to revive an economy that has struggled since the 2011 uprising that sparked the Arab Spring revolutions across North Africa, with deadly attacks last year by Islamist militants hitting the tourism industry on which it relies for jobs and revenue. The new IMF programme will succeed a two-ye