Tunisia is reviewing plans to tap international debt markets this year pending an improvement in its ratings while a 2014 deadline for the full convertibility of its dinar currency may also be delayed, its central bank governor said.

'After what happened, we decided to review returning to international debt markets once things become clearer and after we return to previous rating levels,' Mustafa Kamel Nabli was quoted as saying in our sister publication, the Gulf Daily News.

Tunisia had planned to borrow 3.8 billion dinars ($2.7 billion) in 2011 to cover the budget deficit and reimburse 2.3 billion dinars in public debt.

Kamel also said a 2014 deadline the central bank had set for the full convertibility of the Tunisian dinar was challenging.

'It's difficult, difficult. It could be delayed a bit.'

On Wednesday, Moody's cut Tunisia credit ratings to Baa3 and said it could lower it further. Fitch put Tunisia's long-term foreign currency credit rating of BBB on watch for a potential downgrade. – TradeArabia News Service