Tunisia’s trade deficit with the world’s second-largest economy , which has become structural, continues to grow. At the end of the first half of this year, it represented more than 31% of the country’s overall trade deficit.
The gap in trade between Tunisia and China reached more than 2.57 billion dinars in the first six months of the year against a deficit of 1.98 billion dinars during the same period in 2017, i.e. a 585 million dinars, which is largely due to the depreciation of the dinar vis-à-vis the US dollar.
Indeed, Tunisia’s imports from China reached 2.8 billion dinars at the end of last June (+ 38.5%) while its exports to China stood at only 235 million dinars (+ 535%).
Tunisia’s purchases from China account for 10% of our total imports at the end of June, while its exports to this country represent only 1.15% of our total exports.
At the end of the first half of 2018, China remains Tunisia’s third largest supplier, far behind Italy (4.53 billion dinars) and France (4.34 billion dinars).
As a reminder, Tunisia recorded a historical trade deficit vis-à-vis China of about 4.4 billion dinars in 2017, representing 27.5% of our overall deficit over the past year, up 15.8% compared to 2016.
