The trade balance deficit eased to 1,275 million dinars in August 2021, from 1,409 million dinars in July, an improvement of 10%.
The coverage rate therefore gained 3.5 points compared to July, standing at 75.7%, according to data released by the National Institute of Statistics (INS) Wednesday.
The coverage rate is the same as in July.
This reduction in the trade deficit compared to July is the result of the acceleration of the rate of growth of exports, which grew by 8.7% to 3,976 million dinars, after posting a decline in July.
The rebound in exports of the mechanical and electrical industries sector (+18.2%) accounted for more than 80% of the overall increase in exports in July. This acceleration is explained mainly by the increase in exports of machinery, apparatus and electrical equipment.
Similarly, exports of the textiles, clothing and leather sector grew by 8.7% and those of the mining sector by 21.1%. On the other hand, the agriculture and food industries sector recorded a decline of 2.7% and that of energy dropped 19%.
As for imports, they rose by 3.7% in August compared to July to 5,251 million dinars, but remain below pre-pandemic levels.
The increase in imports of energy products is mainly due to higher imports of raw materials and semi-finished products (+7.9%) and consumer goods (+3.3%).
Excluding energy products, imports dropped 4.6% due to the regression of imports of food products (-40%) and capital goods (-14.6%).
By countries, Tunisia’s exports to European Union countries saw an increase of 17.3% over July, mainly to Italy (+39.3%). However, exports dropped with the Maghreb countries (-32.8%), Turkey (-58.8%) and China (-20.2%).
As for imports, they have increased from European Union countries (+10.5%) mainly the Netherlands, AMU countries (+31.3%) mainly Algeria (+43.2%) and Egypt (+81.7%), and with China (+9.9%) and Russia (+235.8%). On the other hand, Tunisia’s purchases with Turkey fell by 12.1%.
