The trade deficit narrowed further to TND 15,856 million, at the end of the first ten months of the year, compared with TND 21,371 million in the first ten months of 2022. The coverage rate rose by 7.2 points to 76.1%.
According to data published Friday by the National Institute of Statistics (INS), the results of Tunisia’s foreign trade at current prices during the ten months of 2023 show that exports rose by 6.9% to 50,550 million dinars, compared with 47,294 million in 2022.
Imports fell by 3.3% (compared with an increase of 34.1% in 2022) to 66,406 million dinars, compared with 68,666 million during the ten months of 2022.
The increase in exports concerned the agri-food industries (+16.2%), textiles, clothing and leather (+9.1%) and mechanical and electrical industries (+17.5%). By contrast, exports from the energy sector fell by 35.7% and those from mining, phosphates and derivatives by 27.3%.
The decline in imports was due to a fall in imports of energy products (-7.2%) and raw materials and semi-finished products (-7.3%), while imports of capital and consumer goods rose by 2.1% and 3% respectively.
In addition, the trade balance deficit is mainly due to the deficit recorded with certain countries, such as China (TND -7,029 million), Russia (TND -5,975 million), Algeria (TND -3,548 million), Turkey (-TND 2,807 million), Ukraine (TND -941.7 million) and Egypt (TND -751.3 million).
On the other hand, the balance of trade in goods recorded a surplus with other countries, mainly France (TND 4,625 million), Germany (TND 2,393 million), Libya (TND 1,938 million) and Italy (TND 844.3 million).
It should also be noted that the trade deficit excluding energy fell to TND 7,331 million. As a result, the energy balance deficit stood at TND 8,524 million (53.8% of the total deficit), compared with TND 7,921 million during the ten months of 2022.
