Tunisia’s foreign trade volumes saw a decline in April. Exports and imports in volume have dropped by 4.2% and 2.5%, respectively, after posting sharp increases in March, according to the latest note of the National Institute of Statistics (INS) on “Foreign Trade at constant prices base 2015 – April 2021”, published Wednesday.
As a result, and with a sharper decline in export volume than in import, the coverage rate loses a point and a half, to settle at 80.9% in April.
Prices continued to rise, with a slightly more sustained pace for imports (+2.9%) than for exports (+2.5%).
Regarding exports, all sectors saw their exports volume fall, with the exception of the textile, clothing and leather sector which has posted a rise of 4.2%.
The decline in volume (-4.2%) recorded at the overall level of exports comes mainly from a negative contribution of the energy sector (-26.2%) and agriculture and agro-industries (-17.4%).
As for imports, the majority of product groups have contributed to this decline, with the exception of energy products whose volume has increased by 37.8% and food products which have been kept stable (+0.7%) compared to March 2021.
It is the remarkable 11.1% drop recorded in the volume of purchases of consumer goods that has contributed most to the fall in the overall volume of imports.
After two months of positive development, non-energy trade volumes have paused and are declining, with a more pronounced rate for imports (-6.4%) than for exports (-1.1%).
On the other hand, non-energy prices went up by 0.6% for exports and 2.4% for imports, which caused a 1.8% drop in the terms of non-energy trade for the third consecutive month, to 94.7%.
