The GDP growth rate at constant 2015 prices stood at 1.2% in the first half of 2023, down from 2.4% in the previous six months, the Central Bank of Tunisia (BCT) said in its conjuncture note on economic and monetary developments published on Thursday.
The first six months of the year presented a mixed picture. Activity performed well in the first quarter (+1.9% year-on-year ‘yoy’), but slowed significantly in the second quarter (+0.6% yoy). On a quarter-on-quarter (qoq) basis, economic activity contracted by 1.3% in the second quarter of 2023, after growing by 0.7% in the first quarter.
This was mainly due to the fall in the value added (VA) of agriculture, forestry and fishing (-7.9% qoq and -12.5% yoy, with a negative contribution to growth of -0.7%) and the underperformance of the nonmanufacturing branch (-3.9% qoq and -5.5% yoy, with a negative contribution of -0.3%) and, to a lesser extent, of the manufacturing branch (-2.0% qoq and -0.2% yoy, with a negative contribution of -0.3%).
However, the VA of nonmarket activities increased by 0.5% in the second quarter of 2023 compared to the previous quarter, contributing 0.1% to GDP growth.
In the second quarter of the current year, VA stagnated at the level of market services (0% in VT, after 0.5%) and fell slightly at the level of taxes less subsidies (-1.3%, after 12.1% in the first quarter).
In its note, the BCT pointed to the poor performance of the mining, energy and agricultural sectors in the first nine months of the year, which had an impact on the level of growth achieved.
