The economic growth rate edged up 1.4% in Q2 of 2016, compared to the same period in 2015, and 1.2% in the first half of the year, National Statistics Institute (French: INS) Director-General Hedi Saidi said.
Speaking at a press conference, he added that the growth rate rose 0.2% in Q2 of 2016 in comparison with Q1 while forecasts suggest that the growth rate for the whole year would be 1.8%.
This improvement is due to the increase in the added value of manufacturing industries following the pick-up in the activity of chemical industry (28.9%) and mechanical and electronic industries (2.7%) and in spite of the downturn in the agri-food industry (- 0.6%) and the building materials, ceramics and glass industry (- 0.4%), Saidi added.
