HomeNewsTunisia: trade deficit widens by 40% in Q1 to 4.3 billion dinars

Tunisia: trade deficit widens by 40% in Q1 to 4.3 billion dinars

Tunisia’s trade balance deficit is widening further in the first quarter of the current year, by standing at 4.3 billion dinars, against 3 billion at the end of March 2021, a worsening of 40%, or +1.3 billion dinars.

This widening originates from the sharp increase in the energy deficit but also from the acceleration of imports at a faster pace than exports.

In fact, according to figures published by the National Institute of Statistics (INS) Tuesday, exports posted an increase of 26.2% (against +6.2% during the first quarter of 2021) to 14 billion dinars, against 11.2 billion at the end of March 2021.

On the other hand, imports went up 29.2% (against +1.5% last year) to 18.4 billion dinars, against 14.2 billion during the first quarter of 2021. As a result, the coverage rate lost 1.8 points compared to the first quarter of 2021 to 76.6%.

In detail, the increase observed in exports in the first quarter of 2022 concerns several sectors. Indeed, Tunisia’s sales in energy grew 137.6%, those of mines, phosphates and derivatives 152.2%, textiles, clothing and leather 20.9%, mechanical and electrical industries 13.3% and those of food industries 19.7%.

On the import side, the increase comes from the growth of the country’s purchases in energy (+87.2), raw materials and semi-finished products (+36.7%), consumer goods (+12.8%) and capital goods (+9.5%).

In addition, Tunisia’s exports to the European Union (69% of total exports) rose 18.8% in the first quarter. This is explained, on the one hand, by the increase in exports to some European partners, such as France (7.3%), Italy (22%) and Germany (32.6%), and on the other hand, by the decline in sales to other countries, including the Netherlands (-28.6%) and Slovakia (-3.9%).

With the Arab countries, Tunisia’s exports increased with Algeria (8.9%), Morocco (31.6%) and Libya (11.3%), said the INS.

As for imports, trade in goods with the European Union (43.5% of total imports) went up 12.8% to 8 billion dinars at the end of last March. Imports increased by 26.2% with France, 18.4% with Italy and they decreased by 3.1% with Germany.

The balance of trade remains largely explained by the deficit recorded with some countries, such as China (-2,009 MTD), Turkey (-1,356 MD), Algeria (-871.6 MTD) and Russia (-561.7 MTD). However, the balance of trade in goods recorded a surplus with other countries mainly with France (933.6 MDT), Germany (914.5 MDT) and Libya (490.3 MD). The results show that the trade balance deficit excluding energy went down to 2.6 billion dinars. Indeed, the deficit of the energy balance is -1.67 billion dinars at the end of March (39% of the total deficit) against 1 billion dinars during the first quarter of 2021.

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