Tunisia’s gross domestic product (GDP) declined by 2.0% in the second quarter of 2021, ater recording a near-stagnation early in 2021 (+ 0.2%). Year-on-year, and considering the base effect caused by the slowdown in the country’s activities in spring 2020, due to lockdown measures, GDP growth posted a rather «technical» correction of (+16.2%) in the second quarter of 2021, after registering (-1.7%) growth in the previous quarter, the National Institute of Statistics (French: INS) said Sunday.
As the 2nd quarter of 2020 was marked by the introduction of a full lockdown, most economic and trade activities in Tunisia were suspended, resulting to a negative growth rate of 19.8% (year-on-year).
The 2% decrease reported in the second quarter of 2021 is mainly due to a drop in the added value of the following sectors: hotels, catering and cafes sectors by 35.2%, transport by 20.9%, construction at 17.1%, as well as agriculture and fishing by 4.7%.
On the other hand, production of all manufacturing industries (textile, clothing and footwear sector) grew by 53%, and (building materials and ceramics industry sector) went up 63, 5%.
The sector of mechanical and electrical industries increased by 56.7% while that of the chemical industries climbed by 4.7%.
The agricultural and food industries rose by 3.1%. The same thing applies to the production of the mining sector (24.1%) the construction sector (46.9%) and the oil and natural gas extraction sector (16.3%) at the end of the second quarter of 2021, INS added.
In its latest report (June 2021), the World Bank predicted the Tunisian economy would grow 4% in 2021, 2.6% in 2022 and 2.2% in 2023.

Source: TAP News Agency