The trade balance deficit has worsened at the end of the first 5 months of 2012, standing at -4,493.8 million dinars (MTD), against -3,316 MTD in the first 4 months of the same year, causing a 7.1% decline in the coverage rate.
Compared with the same period in 2011, the results of Tunisia’s foreign trade , at current prices, show, at the end of the first 5 months of 2012, a rapid increase in imports (+14.5%), far from exports (+4.1%), to stand at 15,539.9 MTD for imports and 11,046.1 MTD for exports.
According to the website of the National Institute of Statistics (INS), the coverage rate stands at present at about 71.3%, after reaching 78.2 % in the first four months of 2012.
The trade deficit can be explained by the deficit recorded with several countries, particularly Spain (-430.6 MTD), Germany (-46.9 MTD) and China (-1,038.1 MTD).
However a trade surplus has been recorded with France (+498.7MTD) and Libya (585.6 MTD).
