Exports from the industrial sector are starting to pick up. Compared to last months, the evolution was very significant and exports went from 12,009.4 million dinars (MD) during the first five months of 2017 to 15,230.1 MD during the same period of 2018, posting an increase of 26.8%.
The industrial sector imported 18,870.4 MD during the first five months of 2018 compared to 16,030.9 MD during the same period of 2017, recording an increase of 17.7%.
Therefore, the commercial balance of the industrial sector is -3,640.3 MD against -4,021.5 MD during the first five months of 2017.
The increase in exports is mainly due to the agri-food sector whose exports reached 1,909.8 MD, against 899.6 MD during the first five months of 2017, up 112.3%.
The exports of the sector of ceramic and glass building materials industries also went up.
Similarly, exports of the mechanical and electrical industries sector grew by 19.5%.
The sector of textile and clothing industries was not left behind with exports in the order of 3052.7 MD against 2496.4 MD during the first five months of 2017, up 22.3%.
The same goes for the leather and footwear industries, whose exports increased by 26.9% to 643.7 MD against 507.3 MD in the first five months of 2017.
Industrial imports saw increases for all sectors. These increases range from 1.4% for the agri-food industry to 27% for the miscellaneous industry sector.
With regard to services, it emerges that during the first five months of 2018, reported investment in service activities reached the amount of 580,3 MD against 998,9 MD during the first five months of 2017, down 41.9%.
The number of reported projects reached 5054 in the first five months of 2018 compared with 4148 in the first five months of 2017, up 21.8%. These projects will create 19,626 job positions, compared with 17,901 job positions in the first five months of 2017, up increase of 9.6%.
Reported investments in fully exporting services activities increased by 98.2%, with an amount of 44.6 MD, compared with 22.5 MD in the first five months of 2017.
The number of this kind of projects has increased by 26.1% from 690 in the first five months of 2017 to 870 in the same period of 2018; the number of jobs to be created has risen by 29.7% from 2,989 to 3,878 during the same period.
As for services oriented towards the local market, investments saw a 45.1% decline with 535.7 MD against 976.4 MD during the first five months of 2017.
The number of relevant projects grew by 21% (4184 during the first five months of 2018 compared to 3458 during the same period of 2017), the jobs to be created increased by 5.6% (15 748 against 14,912 during the first five months of 2017).
The decline in investments during the first five months of 2018 in services activities results from the decrease recorded in the Eastern regions where investments reached 461.3 MD against 865 MD during the first five months of 2017 (- 46.7%), as well as that recorded in the Western regions where reported investments went down from 133.9 MD to 119 MD during the first five months of 2018 (-11.2%).
The increase in reported projects in service activities is a result of the sharp rise in the Eastern regions, where the number of projects reported in service activities rose from 3,458 to 4,537 during the first five months of 2018 (+ 31.2%).
On the other hand, the number of projects in the Western Region decreased by 25.1% (517 compared to 690 projects reported during the first five months of 2017).
The increase in jobs to be created is the result of the rise recorded in the Eastern regions where the jobs to be created reached 17,480 during the first five months of 2018 against 15,567 during the same period of 2017 (+ 12.3%).
As for the number of jobs reported in the western regions, it went down from 2,334 to 2,143 in the first five months of 2018, posting an 8.2% drop.
