Tunisia: The trade balance deficit widened by 59% during the first eleven months of 2022, to reach $7.35 billion

Tunisia’s trade balance deficit widened by 59% in the first eleven months of 2022, to 23.3 billion dinars ($7.35 billion), from 14.6 billion dinars during the same period of 2021, according to data published Tuesday, December 13 by the National Institute of Statistics (INS).

Between January 1 and November 30, 2022, exports reached 52.2 billion dinars, against 42 billion during the same period in 2021, thus recording an increase of 24%.

Imports peaked at 75.4 billion dinars over the first eleven months of the current year, against 56.7 billion during the same period of the past year, which represents an increase of 33 %.

The rate of coverage of imports by exports thus recorded, during the period under review, a drop of 5.1 percentage points compared to the first eleven months of 2021, to stand at 69.1%.

The sharp increase in imports stems in particular from the surge in imports of energy products (+87%) and raw materials & semi-finished products (+35%).

The largest deficits were recorded with China (-7.9 billion dinars), Turkey (-3.7 billion), Algeria (-3.2 billion), Russia (-2.5 billion) and Italy (-2.2 billion).

The balance of the trade balance, however, recorded a surplus with other trading partners of Tunisia, including France (+4 billion dinars), Germany (+2.7 billion) and Libya (+1.7 billion).