Some Tunisian shops are rationing goods including cooking oil, sugar and butter, while big queues have hit petrol stations amid a fuel shortage as the government navigates a looming crisis in public finances, Report informs referring to Reuters.
Some grocery shops have restricted customers to single packs of items in short supply, while queues outside petrol stations have blocked traffic in parts of the capital.
The government sells many imported goods at a highly subsidised rate and a global commodities squeeze has pushed up international prices.
The government has received two tranches of international help this summer, from the World Bank and European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, to fund grain purchases, but is also seeking an IMF bailout to finance the budget and pay debt.
"There's no oil or sugar or butter and there is a big shortage of biscuits and snacks," said Azzouz, a shopkeeper in the working class Ettadamon district of Tunis.
Khadija, a woman shopping in the same area, said she could not find any subsidised cooking oil and could not afford other brands.
"The situation gets more difficult day by day and we don't know what we're going to do," she said.