The National Institute of Statistics (INS) reports, this Tuesday, a strong deterioration of the Tunisian trade balance: the current price deficit widened by 54%, going from 4734.8 MD to the end of April 2024 to 7294.1 MD on the same date in 2025. The rate of coverage of imports by exports is based on 74% earlier.
According to INS, this degradation is due to a fall in exports of 2.4%, which did not exceed 20.7 billion dinars, while imports jumped by 7.8%, reaching more than 28 billion dinars in the first four months of the year.
Energy is the main person responsible: exports in the sector fell 33%to 105.8 MD against 621.2 MD before, in particular due to the sharp drop in sales of refined products. The agrifood industries have also seen their exports fall by 19.2%, under the effect of a clear flexibility in olive oil sales ( – 28%, at 1758.6 MD).
In terms of imports, the increase is carried by capital goods (+ 22.1%) and raw materials and a half-production (+ 11.3%), a sign of a potential revival of investments and the productive apparatus. Consumer goods increased by 15.7%, while imported energy products, despite high global volatility, fell 14.2%.
By breaking down the deficit by post, we note that energy weighs for nearly 3.7 billion dinars, raw materials and a half-products for 2.5 billion, equipment for 1.1 billion, and consumer goods for 0.6 billion. Note that, outside the energy sector, the trade deficit is limited to 3.6 billion dinars over this same period.
