The foreign trade deficit narrowed to TND12,194.7 million by the end of August 2023, against -TND16,913.7 million during the 1st eight months of 2022. The coverage rate rose by 8.3 points to 76.9% compared to the same period last year, reads the National Institute of Statistics (INS)' foreign trade at constant price report issued Tuesday. This is mainly due to the deficit posted with some countries, such as China (-TND5,532.9 million), Russia (-TND4,376.8 million), Algeria (-TND3,012.7 million), Turkey (-TND1,980.9 million, Ukraine (-TND826.4 million), Egypt (-TND633.8 million) and Greece (-TND378.2 million). However, the trade balance in goods recorded a surplus with other countries, mainly France (TND3,595.7 million), Germany (TND2,014 million), Italy (TND769.2 million) and Libya (TND1,483.9 million). Excluding energy, the trade balance deficit narrowed by TND5,681.8 million, while the energy trade balance deficit worsened to TND6,512.9 million -53.4% of the total deficit), against -TND6,025 million during the 1st eight months of 2022. //Exports up 10.1% The results of Tunisia's foreign trade at current prices during the first eight months of 2023 show that exports increased by 10.1%, compared with 24.4% during the same period in 2022, reaching TND40,639.4 million, against TND36,910.1 million during the same period last year. The rise in exports was reported in several sectors: Agri-food (+15.7%), textiles, clothing and leather (+11.6%) and mechanical and electrical engineering (+19.4%). However, exports in the energy sector fell by 26.1%, mines, phosphates and by-products (-16.3%). Tunisia's exports to the European Union (71% of all exports) posted a 15.2% rise. This is explained by the rise in exports to France (+9.3%), Italy (+21%), Germany (+14.2%), Spain (+33.6%), Greece (+1.6%) and Netherlands (20.7%). As for the Arab countries, exports to Algeria rose by 38% and to Libya by 8.4%. However, they fell by 27.4% with Egypt and by 8.4% with Morocco. //Imports down by 1.8% Imports on the other hand, posted a 1.8% drop to TND 52,834.1 million by the end of August, against a 34.1% rise (TND 53,823.8 million) during the same period in 2022. This is due to the 3.3% drop in imports of energy products and -5.8% in imports of raw materials and semi-finished products. However, imports of equipment and consumer goods rose by 3.9% and 4%, respectively. Imports from the European Union (43.4% of all imports) fell by 7.8% to TND 22,913.7 million, (France -4.4%), Italy (-14.4%) and Spain (-14.8%), and rose by 17.5% from Germany and 20.8% from the Netherlands. Imports from Russia were also up by 146%, Ukraine (+67.6%), Switzerland (+17.8%), United Kingdom (+16.4%) and were down by 30.9% from Turkey, by 5.5% from China and 3.7% from China.

Source: Agence Tunis Afrique Presse