The Executive Board of the Central Bank of Tunisia, which met Wednesday, October 31, noted the persistence of pressures on financial balances in connection with the continued expansion of the current account deficit and the decline of net assets in foreign currencies as well as rising inflationary pressures.
In this regard and in parallel with the recovery rate of exports of textiles, clothing and mechanical and electrical industries during the month of September and beginning of October of the current year compared to the same period last year (an increase of 5.9% and 12.2%, respectively, in September 2012), the rise in imports of energy, capital goods and consumer goods continued to a faster rate.
This led to a significant widening of the current account deficit to reach 4,557 MTD or 6.4% of GDP in the first nine months of the current year against 4.9% for the same period of the previous year.
These developments have put more pressure on foreign exchange reserves which reached 9,740 MTD or the equivalent of 94 days of import to October 25, 2012 against 113 days in the same period of 2011.
