Tunisia’s trade deficit continued to fall during the first eight months of 2023, to 11.924 billion dinars, compared with 12.191 billion dinars at the end of August 2023, the National Statistics Institute (INS) announced on Friday.
The coverage rate increased by 0.8 points compared to the same period in 2023, reaching 77.7%.
Specifically, exports rose by 2.1% compared with 10.1% in the same period in 2023, to 41.512 billion dinars compared with 40.639 billion dinars.
Imports increased by 1.1% compared to a decrease of 1.8% at the end of August 2023, reaching 53,436 million dinars compared to 52,831 million dinars.
The increase in exports mainly concerns those of the agro-food industry, which rose by 33% as a result of the increase in olive oil sales (3,819 million dinars compared with 2,357 million), as well as those of the energy sector, up by 20.7%, and of the mechanical and electrical industries, up by 1%.
On the other hand, exports of mining, phosphates and derivatives fell by 29.6% and those of textiles, clothing and leather by 6.2%.
The increase in imports was partly due to the rise in imports of energy products (+16.6%), capital goods (+2.5%) and consumer goods (+4.7%), and partly to the fall in imports of raw materials and semi-finished goods (-5.5%).
The trade deficit is mainly due to the deficit recorded with certain countries, such as China (-5,588 million dinars), Russia (-4,032 million dinars), Algeria (-2,525 million dinars), Turkey (-1,724 MD), Greece (-919.6 MD) and Ukraine (-982.5 MD).
On the other hand, the balance of trade in goods recorded a surplus with other countries, mainly France (3,513 MD), Italy (1,384 MD), Germany (1,479 MD), Libya (1,422 MD) and Morocco (136.1 MD).
It should be noted that the trade deficit excluding energy fell to 4,418 million dinars. The energy deficit amounted to 7,505 million dinars, compared with 6,513 million dinars in the first eight months of 2002.
