Tarek Amara | dTUNIS

The World Bank has approved a $500 million credit for Tunisia to help the North African country with budget support, a government official said on Tuesday.

The new loan came just after the International Monetary Fund released a $320-million delayed tranche of Tunisia’s IMF loan after the government agreed to speed up economic reforms.

Praised as a model of democratic transition following its 2011 uprising to oust autocrat leader Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali, Tunisia has so far mostly failed to deliver on planned economic reforms to help create jobs and cut public deficits.

(Reporting by Tarek Amara; writing by Patrick Markey)