IMF funds Tunisia transition after new cabinet approved

The International Monetary Fund allocated 506.7 million U.S. dollars to assist Tunisia through its political transition, Tunisian Minister of Economy and Finance Hakim Ben Hamouda confirmed Thursday to the Tunisian Press Agency (TAP). Ben Hamouda said that the decision was announced Wednesday following the IMF's administrative board meeting in Washington D.C. The funds came a few hours after the new caretaker government, led by independent figure Mehdi Jemaa, was sworn into office Wednesday and one day after the country's legislative power the National Constituent Assembly (NCA) approved it on Tuesday night. The release of 506.7 million U.S. dollars is the second tranche of a 1.76 billion U.S. dollars loan that was signed on June 7, 2013, aiming to revive the Tunisian economy, which was hammered by three years of political turmoil triggered by the ouster of the country's former president Zine Abidine Ben Ali. After a political crisis that lasted for months, Tunisia managed to save its feeble transition with a deal brokered by key national organizations. An independent cabinet has taken over the Islamist-led government that shrank in popularity because of the struggling economic and increasing insecurity. Tunisia has gained the praise of the international community for succeeding in drafting and ratifying a consensual constitution.