Tunisia’s trade deficit at current prices continues to decline. It stood at around 13.5 billion dinars at the end of September 2024, compared with around 14 billion dinars at the same time in 2023, according to a note on foreign trade published on Thursday by the National Institute of Statistics.
At the same time, and ipso facto, the coverage rate increased by 1 point compared to the corresponding period in 2023, to 77.5%.
This improvement in the trade deficit can be explained by the fact that exports are growing faster than imports.
More specifically, foreign sales increased by 2.1% (compared with 7.5% in the same period in 2023) to 46.4 billion dinars, while imports increased by 0.8% (compared with -3.7% at the end of September 2023) to 59.9 billion dinars.
The increase in exports (+2.1%) observed in the first nine months of 2024 mainly concerns those of the agro-food industry, which rose by 28.9%, energy (+26.4%) and mechanical and electrical engineering (+0.9%).
On the other hand, exports of mining, phosphate and derivative products fell by 24.4% and those of textiles, clothing and leather by 6.3%.
As for imports, their estimated increase of 0.8% is due, on the one hand, to the rise in imports of energy products (+14.5%), capital goods (+4.1%) and consumer goods (+4.5%) and, on the other hand, to the fall in imports of raw materials and semi-finished goods (-5.8%).
Exports: the lion’s share to the EU
Tunisia’s exports to the European Union (69.6% of total exports) remained virtually stable (+0.1%). This trend is explained, on the one hand, by the increase in Tunisian exports to several European partners, such as Italy (+4.8%), Spain (+15%) and Belgium (+3.7%), and, on the other, by the decline in exports to France (-2.2%) and Germany (-1.6%).
Exports to Arab countries rose with Algeria (+43.3%) and Egypt (+8%). They fell with Libya (-15.3%) and Morocco (-12.9%).
Imports from the European Union (43.6% of total imports) increased by 1.3% to 26,138.2 MD. Imports increased with Germany (+11.5%) and Spain (+6.5%). Conversely, they fell in Italy (-4.6%), France (-0.5%) and the Netherlands (-8.9%).
Outside the European Union, imports rose in China (+3.3%), India (+1.8%) and Switzerland (+18.5%). They fell in Russia (-12.8%) and Turkey (-6.3%).
Map of the deficit
It is important to note that the trade deficit is mainly due to the deficit recorded with certain countries, such as China (-6.4 billion dinars), Russia (-4.3 billion dinars), Algeria (-3 billion dinars), Turkey (-1.9 billion dinars), Greece (-1 billion dinars) and Ukraine (-1 billion dinars).
On the other hand, the balance of trade in goods recorded a surplus with other countries, mainly France (3.9 bn dinars), Italy (1.5 bn dinars), Germany (1.6 bn dinars), Libya (1.5 bn dinars) and Morocco (0.1 bn dinars).
