Tunisia’s trade deficit is narrowing, but only slightly. It stood at (TND -15,716 million) in 2024, compared with (TND -15,853.1 million) in the first ten months of 2023. As a result, the coverage rate rose by 0.6 points compared with the same period in 2023, to stand at 76.7%, according to the foreign trade at current prices for October 2024, published on Monday evening by the National Statistics Institute (INS).
This deficit is mainly due to the deficit recorded with certain countries such as China (TND -7,353.4 million), Russia (TND -4,700.6 million), Algeria (TND -3,534.5 million), Turkey (-TND 2,286.9 million), India (TND -1,182.8 million) and Ukraine (-TND 1,157 million).
On the other hand, the balance of trade in goods recorded a surplus with other countries, mainly France (TND 4,335.6 million), Italy (TND 1,467.5 million), Germany (TND 1,932.5 million), Libya (TND 1,790.2 million) and Morocco (TND 176.3 million). It should be noted that the trade deficit excluding energy narrowed to (TND -6,319.3 million), while the energy deficit was (TND -9,396.7 million), compared with (TND -8,524.9 million) in the first ten months of 2023.
Exports up by 2.1%
The results of Tunisia’s foreign trade at current prices, during the first ten months of 2024, show that exports increased by (+2.1%) against (+6.9%) during the same period in 2023.
They reached TND 51,623.4 million against TND 50,550 million during the first ten months of 2023.
The increase observed in the first ten months of 2024 mainly concerns exports from the agro-food sector, which rose by 25.4%, exports from the energy sector by 23.8% and exports from the mechanical and electrical industry by 1.4%.
On the other hand, exports from the mining, phosphates and derivatives sector fell (-24.8%) and those from the textiles, clothing and leather sector dropped (-5.4%).
Tunisia’s exports to the European Union (69.4% of total exports) remained virtually stable (+0.2%). This trend is explained, on the one hand, by the increase in exports to several European partners, such as Italy (+4.2%), Spain (+9.8%) and Germany (+0.5%) and, on the other, by the fall in exports to France (-2.2%) and the Netherlands (-28.6%).
Exports to Arab countries increased with Algeria (+43.9%). However, they fell with Libya (-12.4%), Morocco (-14.1%) and Egypt (-6.9%).
Imports also increase, but to a lesser extent
Imports increased by 1.4% compared with 3.3% in the same period of 2023. In value terms, imports reached MD TND 67,339.4 million in the first ten months of 2023, compared with TND 66,403.2 million.
The increase in imports (+1.4%) is due, on the one hand, to the rise in imports of energy products (+13.4%), capital goods (+4.6%) and consumer goods (+5.2%) and, on the other, to the fall in imports of raw materials and semi-finished goods (-4.3%) and food (-12.5%).
Imports with the European Union (43.4% of total imports) increased by 1.8% to TND 29,209.5 million. Imports increased with Germany (+11.1%), Spain (+7.2%) and France (+0.6%). Conversely, they fell in Italy (-2.8%), the Netherlands (-9.9%) and Belgium (-13.9%). Outside the European Union, imports rose with China (+4.7%), India (+2.5%) and Switzerland (+17.3%). They fell in Russia (-21%) and Turkey (-9.5%).
