The trade deficit climbed to 10,068.5 MD during the first 8 months of 2017 against 8253.5 MD during the same period in 2016, according to figures from the National Institute of Statistics (INS), unveiled Tuesday.
The INS explains this worsening of the trade balance by the disparity in the rate of growth between imports (+ 19.3%) and exports (+ 18.1%).
Therefore, the coverage rate declined compared to the same period in 2016, i.e. 68.5% and 69.2%, respectively.
However, the results of Tunisia’s foreign trade at current prices during the eight months of 2017 confirm the improvement observed in recent months in the rate of growth of exports, noted INS.
Indeed, exports increased by 18.1%, after a rate of 15.9% in the seven months of 2017 and 1.2% during the same period last year.
In value terms, exports reached the level of 21,927.3 MD, against 18,570.9 MD during the same period of 2016.
Imports reached the value of 31,995.8 MD compared to 26824.4 MD during the same period of 2016, posting an increase of 19.3% against 18.8% during the first seven months of 2017 and -0.5% during the same period of 2016.
