The Executive Board of the Central Bank of Tunisia (BCT), on Wednesday, held its periodic meeting remotely and discussed various items on the its agenda.
With regard to recent developments in the external sector, the Board highlighted the decrease in the current account deficit to 6.8% of GDP in 2020, compared to 8.4% the previous year.
This result is mainly attributable to the contraction of the trade deficit, in connection with the impact of the crisis of COVID-19 on Tunisia’s foreign trade.
Indeed, imports fell at a faster rate than exports, i.e., -18.7% and -11.7%, compared with an increase of 5.5% and 7%, respectively, a year earlier.
The increase in expat remittances by 8.7% has also contributed to the consolidation of this positive result of the external sector, despite the sharp decline in tourism revenues of 64.1%.
Taking these developments into account, net foreign exchange reserves reached 22.6 billion dinars or 158 days of imports as of January 29, 2021 compared to 19.4 billion dinars or 112 days of imports on the same date of the previous year.
