Tunisia’s economic growth remained stable at 2.1 percent year-on-year in third quarter, the state statistics institute said on Thursday. The growth was also 2.1 percent in the third quarter last year. Figures from the statistics Institute showed that growth in the first nine months of 2017 was to 1.9 percent. Tunisia is targeting GDP growth of 3 percent next year compared with an expected 2.5 percent this year. It also aims to cut its budget deficit to 4.9 percent of gross domestic product in 2018, down from about 6 percent expected in 2017. Commenting on the data, Tunisian economic expert Ezzedine Soaidan said the growth in the past period is not a sign that Tunisia’s economy has totally recovered and has overcome the slowdown witnessed in the 2016 and the start of this year. In its World Economic Outlook released in October, the International Monetary Fund said GDP growth in Tunisia is projected at 2.3 percent in 2017. According to Soaidan, Tunisia’s economy is currently facing the challenges of slowdown and the controversy on the implementation of economic reforms as mentioned in the 2018 draft state budget.