After a period of relative calm, pressure on household purchasing power is intensifying once again. Overall inflation in Tunisia climbed to 5.5% in April 2026, up from 5% in both March and February, a rise driven mainly by two key sectors.
The food group saw its rate of increase accelerate sharply, from 6.8% in March to 8.2% in April. This surge is marked by a spectacular jump in several fresh products: fresh fruit (+19.2%), poultry and lamb meat (+16.1%), fresh vegetables (+13.5%), and beef (+12%).
The only bright spots for the household shopping basket were edible oils and eggs, whose prices fell by 6.8% and 4.4% respectively.
Clothing and services: contrasting trends
The clothing and footwear sector posted a 9.3% rise, compared with 7.5% the previous month, weighing heavily on family budgets as the summer season approaches.
On the services side, while the overall increase was 4.2%, accommodation services saw an explosion of 14.6%.
Conversely, the transport sector offered some breathing room, with price rises slowing to 2.2% from 2.8% in March.
A “structural” inflation taking hold
Core inflation, which excludes food and energy to measure the underlying trend of the economy, also rose, reaching 4.8% (up from 4.6% in March).
The report from the National Institute of Statistics (INS) also highlights a widening gap between products whose prices are set by the state (+1%) and those subject to market forces (+6.8%).
The gap is even more striking in the food sector, where prices for unregulated products jumped by 9.3%, while administered products remained almost stable (+0.2%).
This disparity underscores the difficulty of regulating prices in the face of increasingly volatile fresh produce markets.
