Parents shop for books and stationery for their children in the center of Tunis, Tunisia on Sept. 6, 2022. (Photo by Adel Ezzine/Xinhua)
"Education is the top priority for our family, so we tighten our belts to buy school supplies," a Tunisian mother says.
by Xinhua writers Xu Supei, Ayten Laamar, Huang Ling
TUNIS, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- Rising costs of school supplies cause extra pain for young parents in Tunisia during their back-to-school shopping ahead of the new school year that starts next week.
"The prices have increased ridiculously. I spend about 300 Tunisian dinars (93 U.S. dollars) on my kids' school supplies, accounting for 15 percent of my monthly income," Fatma, a Tunisian mother of two, told Xinhua.
She complained that she had to adjust the yearly budget for her family over and over again to cover the back-to-school expenses.
Parents shop for books and stationery for their children in the center of Tunis, Tunisia on Sept. 6, 2022. (Photo by Adel Ezzine/Xinhua)
Maryem Blidi, a 44-year-old office manager in the northern province of Ariana, told Xinhua that she had to limit her budget for buying stationery as the rising inflation creeps into every aspect of life in Tunisia.
To curb inflation, the central bank in the North African country raised the key interest rate by 75 basis points to 7 percent in May, the first hike in over three years. However, inflation continued to rise for the consecutive 11 months to 8.6 percent in August, the highest record since September 1991.
The increase is explained by the rise in the price of food products (11.9 percent), furniture, household items and routine household maintenance (11.3 percent), and educational products and services (10 percent), according to the data released by the National Institute of Statistics on Monday.
Parents shop for books and stationery for their children in the center of Tunis, Tunisia on Sept. 6, 2022. (Photo by Adel Ezzine/Xinhua)
When asked about the reason for the stationery inflation, many parents referred to the spill-out of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, both key timber suppliers. Data shows that Russia exported around 6 million tons of pulp and paper products in 2021.
Moreover, as many school supplies in Tunisia are imported, their prices rose under a stronger dollar led by the U.S. Federal Reserve's repeated rate hikes this year.
Parents shop for books and stationery for their children in the center of Tunis, Tunisia on Sept. 6, 2022. (Photo by Adel Ezzine/Xinhua)
For Fatma, one of the ways in which inflation will harm children is through its impact on their education.
"Education is the top priority for our family, so we tighten our belts to buy school supplies. School and schooling should be altogether be protected from profit and the free market, our kids need to have equal opportunities in their learning experience," she said. ■
