Tunisia’s trade balance deficit continues to grow. It stood at 16.9 billion dinars, over the first eight months of the year, against a deficit of 10.5 billion at the end of August 2021, a widening of 61%.
Figures from the National Institute of Statistics (INS) show that the deficit of the trade balance excluding energy has dropped to 10.8 billion dinars, which means that the deficit of the energy balance is 6 billion dinars (or 35.7% of the total deficit) against 2.9 billion dinars during the first eight months of the year 2021
Exports saw an increase of 24.4% to 36.9 billion dinars, against 29.7 billion a year earlier, while imports went up 34% to 53.8 billion dinars.
Following this rise development in exports and imports, the coverage rate has lost 5.3 points compared to the same period of 2021 to 68.6%.
The increase recorded in exports during the eight months of the year 2022 concerns several sectors, namely energy (+61.2%), mining, phosphates and derivatives (+75%), food industries (+33%), textiles, clothing and leather (+21.7%) and mechanical and electrical industries (+13.2%).
As for the increase in imports, it comes from the growth posted in imports of energy (+90.2), raw materials and semi-finished products (+38.7%), consumer goods (+14.1%) and capital goods (+11.2%).
Moreover, the trade deficit remains largely explained by the deficit recorded with certain countries, such as China (-5,828 MD), Turkey (-3,060 MD), Algeria (-1,775 MD) and Russia (-1,758 MD).
On the other hand, the balance of trade in goods recorded a surplus with other countries mainly with France (2,724 MD), Germany (1,958 MD) and Libya (1,160 MD).
