Tunisia’s trade balance deficit has reached 19.2 billion dinars at the end of September 2022, against 11.9 billion during the same period in 2021, widening by 7.3 billion dinars (61%).
Consequently, the coverage rate lost 5 points compared to the same period of 2021 to stand at 68.7%. This is due to an acceleration of imports of 35% against 25% for exports.
According to data published by the National Institute of Statistics (INS) Thursday, imports have reached 61.5 billion dinars during the nine months of the year 2022, against 45.6 billion during the same period of the year 2021. As for exports, they stood at 42.3 billion dinars, against 33.6 billion at the end of September 2021.
In detail, the increase in imports is due to higher imports of energy (+100.8%), raw materials and semi-finished products (+37%), consumer goods (+13.4%) and capital goods (+14.1%).
As for the rise recorded in exports it has concerned several sectors. Indeed, energy exports have risen by 84%, those of mines, phosphates and derivatives of 72.1%, those of food industries of 32.1%, those of textiles, clothing and leather of 21.9% and those of mechanical and electrical industries of 13.5%.
In addition, the trade deficit is largely explained by the deficit recorded with certain countries, such as China (-6,643 MD), Turkey (-3,019 MD), Algeria (-2,537 MD), Russia (-2,037 MD), Italy (-1,728 MD) and Spain (-747.4 MD).
On the other hand, the balance of trade in goods recorded a surplus with other countries mainly with France (3.175 MD), Germany (2.176 MD) and Libya (1.322 MD).
The data of the INS show that the deficit of the trade balance exclusive of energy is down to 12.2 billion dinars.
Indeed, the deficit of the energy balance is 7 billion dinars (36.6% of the total deficit) against 3.3 billion during the nine months of 2021.
