Tunisia’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), by volume, grew 2.2% in the fourth quarter of 2018 compared to the same quarter of 2017 and 0.2% compared to the third quarter of 2018.
To this end, the Tunisian economy recorded a growth of 2.5% over the whole year 2018 against 1.9% in 2017, according to figures published by the National Institute of Statistics (INS).
During the fourth quarter, manufacturing sector’s value added fell 0.5% year-over-year due to a decline in activity in the chemical industries (-3.7%) and agricultural and food industries (-1.7%).
Throughout 2018, the value added of the manufacturing sector edged up 0.3%, i.e. nearly the same increase recorded in 2017 (+ 0.5%).
As for the value added in the non-manufacturing industries sector, in the fourth quarter of the year it has decreased by 3.6% compared to the same period last year, mainly due to the decline in production of the petroleum and natural gas extraction sector (-14.2%).
In fact, production of petroleum has dropped from 3.7 to 3.3 million barrels between the last quarter of 2017 and that of 2018.
The mining sector posted a 4.9% decline in the fourth quarter due to the drop in phosphate production to 700 thousand tons compared to 800 thousand tons a year earlier.
Throughout 2018, the value added of the non-manufacturing industries sector dropped by 1.2%, compared to a 3.4% decline in 2017.
In addition, the value added in the agriculture and fishing sector achieved a significant growth of around 9.8% throughout 2018, while the services sector continued to grow steadily, by posting an increase of 3.3% due to the rise in value added of all its activities.
