The results of Tunisia’s foreign trade at current prices in April 2020 show a 48.9% decline in exports compared to the same month of the past year (-29.5% in March), which is the strongest contraction in recent economic history, according to data published by the National Institute of Statistics (INS).
In value, Tunisia’s exports amounted to 2 billion dinars, against 3.9 billion in April 2019.
This decrease mainly affected the off-shore sectors, namely the textile, clothing and leather sector and the mechanical and electrical industries sector whose exports have fallen by 83.5% and 62.1%, respectively.
Similarly, the agriculture and agri-food industries sector posted a decline of 10.6%.
On the other hand, exports from the energy sector recorded a strong increase (+152.4%), explained in part by the regularization of late customs declarations relating to March (around 34% of the value), while exports from the mining, phosphates and derivatives sector grew by only 2.5%.
As for imports, they also saw an exceptional fall of 46.8% in April compared to the same month of the year 2019 (-27.4% in March) to 3.3 billion dinars, against 6.3 billion in April last year.
This decrease is mainly due to the strong contraction observed in the energy sector (-67.8%), capital goods (-53.4%), raw materials and semi-finished products (-42.3%), consumer goods (-48.9%) as well as mining and phosphate products (-37%).
