Tunisia’s trade deficit narrowed by 50% in January to 550.6 million dinars, from 1,095 million dinars in January 2023. As a result, the coverage rate rose by 8.1 points to 90.3%.
According to data published on Monday by the National Statistics Institute (INS), Tunisia’s foreign trade figures at current prices show that exports rose by 2.1% in January to 5,152 million dinars.
Imports fell by 7.1% (compared to an increase of 9.6% in January 2023) to 5,703 million dinars, from 6,140 million dinars in January 2023.
The increase in exports mainly concerns exports from the agro-food sector, which rose by a remarkable 66.2% due to a sharp increase in sales of olive oil (607.8 million dinars, compared to 270.1 million).
In contrast, exports from the energy sector fell by 21%, mining, phosphates and derivatives by 17.8%, textiles, clothing and leather by 6.2% and machinery and electrical equipment by 2.1%.
The decline in imports was mainly due to lower imports of energy products (-3.5%), raw materials and semi-finished goods (-8.7%) and consumer goods (-0.5%), while imports of capital goods went up by 3.4%.
The trade deficit was mainly due to the deficit recorded with certain countries, such as China (-596.4 MD), Russia (-401.3 MD), Turkey (-216.5 MD), Greece (-218.5 MD) and Algeria (-32.5 MD).
On the other hand, the balance of trade in goods recorded a surplus with other countries, mainly France (441 MD), Italy (397.4 MD), Germany (193.3 MD), Libya (101.3 MD) and Morocco (29.9 MD).
The INS points out that the trade balance, excluding energy, showed a surplus of 133 million dinars in January 2024. The energy balance showed a deficit of 683.6 million dinars, compared with a deficit of 639.6 million dinars in January 2023.
