The trade balance has widened during the first half of the year 2022, to -11,776.1 million dinars (MD) against -7,536.5 MD in the same period of 2021, according to the note on Foreign Trade at current prices in June 2022 published by the National Institute of Statistics (INS) Thursday.
This worsening is explained by the rise of exports (+24.6%) and imports (+32.4%), according to the INS.
The coverage rate has, therefore, lost 4.5 points compared to the same period of 2021 to 70.7%.
The deficit of the trade balance is explained in large part by the deficit recorded with some countries, such as China (-4,226.7 MD), Turkey (-2,536.1 MD), Algeria (-1,535.6 MD) and Russia (-1,125.6 MD).
On the other hand, the balance of trade in goods posted a surplus with other countries mainly with France (1,894.7 MD), Germany (1,623.9 MD) and Libya (846.1 MD).
The results also showed the trade balance deficit except for energy went down to -7,540,2 MD and that the deficit of the energy balance stood at -4,235.8 MD (36% of the total deficit) against (-2,276.8) MD, during the first half of 2021
Exports up 24,6 %.
Exports saw an increase of 24.6% in the first half of 2022, against 25.5%, during the same period of 2021. They reached 28,432.4 MD against 22,825.6 MD, during the same period of 2021.
Still according to the note of the INS, this increase concerns several sectors. Indeed, sales abroad of the energy sector grew 85.6 %, those of the mines, phosphates and derivatives 86.6 %, those of the food-processing industries of 29 %, those of the textiles, clothing and leather of 22.7 % and those of the mechanical and electric industries 12.7 %.
Tunisia’s exports to the European Union (68.4% of total exports) posted a rise of 18.4%. This growth is explained by the increase in Tunisia’s exports to some European partners, such as France (12.3%), Italy (20.8%) and Germany (23.9%). It is explained, on the other hand, by the decrease of Tunisia’s sales to other countries including the Netherlands (-24.5%) and Hungary (-3.1%).
With Arab countries, exports have increased with Algeria (16.3%), with Morocco (25%) and with Libya (22.6%).
Imports grow 32.4%
For the imports, they went up 32.4 %, at the end of June 2022, against 22.4 %, during the same period of 2021. In value imports reached 40,208.5 MD against 30,362 MD, during the same period of 2021.
This increase results from the rise recorded in imports of energy (+85.9), raw materials and semi-finished products (+36.1%), capital goods (+8.9%) as well as consumer goods (+13.6%).
As for imports, trade in goods with the European Union (44.8% of total imports) recorded an increase of 19.1% to 18,006.6 MD. Imports went up 25.2% with France, 33.4% with Italy and decreased slightly (-0.5%) with Germany.
