Tunisia’s trade deficit hit a new record high at the end of November. It stood at 23.3 billion dinars, against 14.6 billion during the eleven months of the year 2021, a widening of 59%.
Therefore, according to data released by the National Institute of Statistics (INS) Tuesday, the coverage rate has lost 5.1 points compared to the same period of the year 2021 to 69.1%.
The trade deficit is mainly due to the deficit recorded with some countries, such as China (-7.9 billion dinars), Turkey (-3.7 billion), Algeria (-3.2 billion), Russia (-2.5 billion), and Italy (-2.2 billion) and Spain (-735.1 million dinars).
In contrast, the balance of trade in goods posed a surplus with other countries mainly with France (4 billion dinars), Germany (2.7 billion) and Libya (1.7 billion).
On the other hand, the results show that the trade balance deficit excluding energy has dropped to 14 billion dinars and the energy balance deficit is -9.2 billion (39.5% of the total deficit) against 4.5 billion during the eleven months of the year 2021.
Trade (in value) continued to rise in November, with imports growing at a faster pace than exports. Indeed, exports have increased by 24% during the eleven months of the year to reach 52.2 billion dinars, against 42 billion during the same period of the year 2021.
Exports of the energy sector have increased by 59.1%, those of mines, phosphates and derivatives of 50.4%, those of food industries by 35.3%, those of textiles, clothing and leather of 21.4% and those of mechanical and electrical industries by +14.6%.
As for imports, they have risen more rapidly with a growth rate of 33% to 75.4 billion dinars, from 56.7 billion at the end of November 2021.
The surge in imports is due to the increase in imports of energy products (+87%), raw materials and semi-finished products (+35.8%), capital goods (+12.5%) and consumer goods (+14%).
