TUNIS Reuters - Some Tunisian shops are rationing products including cooking oil, sugar and butter, while big queues have hit petrol stations due to a shortage of fuel, as the government struggles to cope with a looming crisis in public finances.
Some grocery stores have restricted customers to single packs of items in short supply, while queues outside petrol stations have blocked traffic in parts of the capital.
President Kais Saied and his government haven't commented on the shortages except by announcing an intention to target commodities speculators and hoarders, and saying they would restructure Tunisia's oil company.
The global commodities squeeze has pushed up international prices as the government sells many imported goods at a highly subsidised rate.
The government has received two tranches of international help this summer, from the World Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, to fund grain purchases, but is also seeking an IMF bailout to finance the budget and pay debt.
Azzouz, a shopkeeper in the Ettadamon district of Tunis, said there was no oil or sugar or butter and there is a big shortage of biscuits and snacks.
Khadija, a woman shopping in the same area, said she could not find any subsidised cooking oil and could not afford other brands. She said that the situation gets harder day by day and we don't know what we're going to do.
Even early on Friday morning, queues were building at a petrol station in the La Marsa district of Tunis, including cars lining the highway along a lane dedicated to oncoming traffic.
Silwan al-Samiri, an official in the UGTT labour union's petrol workers' department, told IFM on Thursday that the government needed to reach a solution to pay for imports.
President Saied has not given a clear indication of his preferred economic policy since taking over most powers in July 2021 in moves his foes call a coup, apart from public statements criticising corruption and speculators.