According to the note on foreign trade at current prices, May 2025 published this Thursday by the National Institute of Statistics, Tunisian foreign trade recorded a digging of the trade deficit in the first five months of the year, in a context of export stagnation.
These were established at 26.83 billion dinars, in a very slight increase of 0.3 % compared to the same period of 2024. imports, on the other hand, increased by 6.1 %, reaching 35.20 billion dinars.
This development resulted in a trade deficit of 8.37 billion dinars, compared to 6.41 billion a year earlier. The rate of coverage of imports by exports thus fell to 76.2 %, against 80.7 % the previous year.
Contrasting sectoral performance
Some sectors have helped support exports. Mines, phosphates and derivatives recorded an increase of 12.9 %, while the mechanical and electric industries increased by 6.4 %, and the textiles, clothing and leather of 2 %. On the other hand, exports from the energy sector dropped by 30.7 %, due to a clear decline in sales of refined products (150.1 million dinars against 788.3 million a year earlier). The agrifood sector has also retreated 18.5 %, in particular with the effect of a drop in exports of olive oil.
Resumption of investment imports
The increase in imports was particularly marked for equipment (+22.2 %), raw materials and half-products (+8.4 %) and consumer goods (+14.7 %). Conversely, purchases of energy products fell by 16.9 %, and those of food products decreased by 1.9 %.
Trade partners: divergent dynamics
The European Union remains the main trading partner in Tunisia. It absorbed 70.3 % of exports, or 18.87 billion dinars against 18.80 billion a year earlier. Tunisia has strengthened its exports to Germany (+16.9 %), the Netherlands (+13.5 %) and France (+3.4 %), while they decreased to Italy (-6.5 %) and Spain (-30.8 %).
Tunisian exports have also increased sharply to Arab countries, notably Libya (+25.1 %), Morocco (+41 %), Algeria (+25 %) and Egypt (+60 %).
Regarding imports, those from the European Union represent 43.9 % of the total, for an amount of 15.47 billion dinars. They are up with France (+13 %), Germany (+9.9 %) and Italy (+3.2 %), but down with Greece (-29.1 %) and Belgium (-2.8 %). Excluding EU, China (+42.7 %) and Turkey (+18.1 %) recorded high increases, while Russia (-19.4 %) and Ukraine (-14.6 %) are withdrawn.
A trade balance always penalized by energy
The trade deficit remains strongly influenced by the energy balance, which displays a negative balance of 4.33 billion dinars. Then come the deficits linked to and a half-production raw materials (2.90 billion), equipment (1.38 billion) and consumer goods (500.9 million). Only the food sector releases a surplus of 744.2 million dinars.
Outside energy, the trade deficit is reduced to 4.03 billion dinars, which underlines the still very heavy weight of the energy bill on the exchange of exchanges.
