The trade deficit narrowed to 1275.4 million dinars (MD) in August 2021, from 1409.3 MD in July 2021, according to a note on Foreign Trade at current prices (CVS-CEC), August 2021, published by the National Institute of Statistics (INS) Tuesday.
The coverage rate gained 3.5 points in August 2021 compared to July 2021 to stand at 75.7%.
“After a sharp decline in July 2021, trade is picking up pace in August. Indeed, imports increased by 3.7% and exports rose by 8.7%, thus returning to their pre-pandemic levels (+3.8% compared to February 2020),” said the INS. Excluding energy products, exports went up 11.6%, while imports dropped 4.6%.
Exports up 8.7% in August 2021
After posting a decline in July 2021, exports have picked up pace. They increased by 8.7% to 3976 MD in August 2021. This improvement is explained by an increase of 14.2% under the offshore regime, mitigated in part by a decline of 3.7% under the general regime.
The rebound of exports of the sector of mechanical and electrical industries (+18,2%) is behind more than 80% of the overall growth of exports of July. This acceleration is explained mainly by the increase in exports of machinery, appliances and electrical equipment.
Similarly, exports of textiles, clothing and leather grew by 8.7% and those of the mining sector by 21.1%.
In contrast, the agriculture and agri-food sector recorded a decline of 2.7% and that of energy fell 19%.
Exports to European Union countries grew 17.3%, to most of European countries including mainly Italy (+39.3%). However, Tunisian exports have fallen with the Maghreb countries (-32.8%), Turkey (-58.8%) and China (-20.2%).
Imports rise 3.7% in August 2021
Imports went up 3.7% to 5251.4 MD in August 2021, but remain below the pre-pandemic levels (-4.5% compared to February 2020).
This increase is mainly due to higher imports of energy products (+95.2%), raw materials and semi-finished products (+7.9%) and consumer goods (+3.3%).
Excluding energy products, imports dropped 4.6% due to lower imports of food products (-40%) and capital goods (-14.6%).
Imports from European Union countries increased by (+10.5%), mainly the Netherlands.
They have increased by 31.3% from AMU countries, mainly Algeria (+43.2%) and Egypt (+81.7%), as well as with China (+9.9%) and Russia (+235.8%). On the other hand, imports fell 12.1% with Turkey.
Quarterly results
Exports in the quarter ending August 2021 stagnated (+0.2%) compared to the previous three months. Imports rose 4.8%, compared to the previous three months.
Source: TAP News Agency