TUNIS - The Tunisian government is targeting 4.5 percent GDP growth in 2013, up from the 3.5 percent forecast for this year, Jameleddine Gharbi, the minister of regional development, was quoted as saying on Thursday.
The rate of growth should be made possible by "revitalising consumption, stimulating investment and boosting exports," said Gharbi, according to the official TAP news agency.
The Islamist-led government wants to relaunch sectors like mining and manufacturing that lagged in 2011, following the mass uprising that toppled Zine El Amine Beni Ali, create 90,000 new jobs and increase public spending.
It hopes to see growth in the second half of 2012 match the 3.5 percent rate recorded in the first six months of the year, with the agricultural sector growing by 4.5 percent.
Tunisia went into recession in 2011, recording negative growth of 1.8 percent. Despite a tentative recovery this year, the economy remains fragile and unemployment, a key factor behind the revolution, persists.
There was a slight drop in the number of people out of work in the first half of 2012, official figures showed, with 18.1 percent of the active population unemployed at the end of June, down from 18.9 at the start of the year.
