In its latest report on the evolution of Tunisian foreign trade at the end of December 2018, the National Statistics Institute (INS) indicates that “the increase posted in exports (+ 19.1%) in 2018 concerns the majority of the sectors.
In fact, the export of the agriculture and agri-food industries registered a significant increase of 45.2%, following the rise in Tunisia’s olive oil sales (2,125.0 MD against 1,009.4 MD), dates (744.1 MD vs. 557.6 MD), the manufacturing sector 26.4%, the textile, clothing and leather sector by 18.6%, the sector of mechanical and electrical industries by 14.1% and the energy sector by 13.7%.
In contrast, exports of the mining, phosphates and derivatives “remain down with a rate of 2.7%.
The same source states that “the increase in imports by 20.0% is due to the increase in all sectors.
Thus, energy rose by 39.9%, mines, phosphates and derivatives by 23.6%, raw materials and semi-finished products by 22.5%, capital goods by 15.6% and basic agricultural and food products by 9.7%. Non-energy imports have risen by 17.3%.