The volume of exports fell by 7.5% while the volume of imports of goods remained stable (+0.2%) in March, announced the National Institute of Statistics (INS).
Nevertheless, over the whole of the first quarter of 2022, trade volumes increased by 8.8% for exports and 8.7% for imports compared to the last quarter of 2021.
On the price side, exported and imported products continued their upward trend in March, with respective increases of 1.9% and 1.8% compared to February 2022.
Decline in export volumes
The contraction in the volume of exports is mainly due to the sharp decline in exports of the mining, phosphates and derivatives sector (-60.3%) combined with the decline in the volume of exports of energy products (-27.1%).
Decreases were also recorded in agriculture and food industries (-8.8%) and mechanical and electrical industries (-0.7%).
However, the volume of exports in the textiles, clothing and leather sector went up by 1% and that of miscellaneous industries by 4.4%.
Over the entire first quarter, the volume of exports increased by 8.8% due to the good performance of the mechanical and electrical industries (+12.8%) and the textiles, clothing and leather sector (+10.7%).
Stable import volumes
The stability of the overall volume of imports (0.2%) In March is due to contrasting developments at the product group level. On the one hand, the volume of imports of energy products more than doubled (+117.2%) and that of consumer goods increased by 12.1%.
On the other hand, the volume of food products fell by 57.2%, as did that of raw materials and semi-finished products (-8.4%), and that of capital goods (-5.4%).
For the first quarter as a whole, the volume of imports grew by 8.7% compared to the fourth quarter of 2021, mainly due to the increase in supplies of raw materials and semi-finished products (+17.6%).
Evolution of trade excluding energy
Excluding energy, the volume of exports fell by 5.6% and imports by 10.6% in March. On the other hand, prices saw a rise in exports by 1.4% and stability (0.2%) in imports resulting in an increase of 1.2 points in the terms of trade excluding energy to 88.7%.
In the first quarter as a whole, volumes increased by 8.5% for export and 13.5% for import and this compared to the 4th quarter of 2021.
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