This could be attributed to the structural reforms that the government implemented aiming to create a more friendly business environment, which has improved the country’s position advancing 6 ranks in the World Bank’s “doing business 2020 report”. Indeed, although the instantaneous impact of the reforms was a pressure on middle to lower income citizens, the economy started reaping their benefits where unemployment fell to 7.5% in 2019 from 9.9% in 2018, GDP growth rose to 5.6% in 2019 from 5.3% in 2018, and foreign reserves increased significantly.

Accordingly, despite the disruption to the growth process, the solid ground the country stood on has mitigated the impact of the pandemic to a good extent.