Tunis — The monthly trade deficit shrank 4.16% in March to TND 1,540.1 million compared to the previous month, reads the National Institute of Statistics (INS) monthly report on Foreign Trade at Current Prices, March 2024.
The monthly trade deficit reached TND 1,540.1 million in March 2024, against TND 1,607 million in February 2024.
The coverage rate of exports rose by 0.5 points to 77%.
Exports and imports fell by 1.3% and 2%, respectively.
Excluding energy products, exports fell by 7.3% and imports by 7.6%.
Exports down 1.3%
Exports posted a third consecutive monthly fall in March, down 1.3% compared to February. This was due to a drop in exports in several sectors, except for the energy sector, currently recovering after three months of continuous decline.
This decline was mainly due to a 6.4% drop in exports in mechanical and electrical industries.
Likewise, the agriculture and agri-food industries sector suffered a sharp drop of 16.3%, due notably to lower olive oil exports.
The textile-clothing and leather and footwear sectors were also down by 9.1%, (-5.5% for textile-clothing and -23.2% for leather and footwear).
Exports from the miscellaneous manufacturing sectors fell by 9.3%.
However, exports in the energy sector edged up again after three months of continuous decline, posting a noteworthy rise of 196%. The mining, phosphates and by-products sector rose by 42.9%.
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Imports down 2%
Imports fell by 2% in March 2024. All product groups contributed to this fall, with the exception of energy products.
Actually, imports of capital goods dropped sharply by 21.7%. This fall was also seen in imports of consumer goods (-11%) mainly due to the decrease private car purchases.
Imports of food products fell sharply by 16.1%, mainly as a result of lower sugar imports.
However, imports of energy products upped by 22%, and raw materials and semi-finished products by 4.8%.
Exports to the European Union fell slightly by 0.8%. Nevertheless, exports to Germany were up by 31.5%, Italy by 6.4% and Belgium by 11%.
On the other hand, export to France fell by 14.1%, Malta by 84.7% and Spain by 5.4%.
Exports to the Maghreb countries declined by 8.8%, notably to Libya by 32.4%, to the United States by 46.8%, United Kingdom by 38.6% and Turkey by 17.5%.
However, exports to Switzerland upped by 159.8%, mainly oil products.
Imports from the EU dropped by 16.7%, notably from Italy (-14.3%), France (-12.6%) and Spain (-19.9%).
However, imports from Germany rose by 0.4%.
Imports from Maghreb countries were up by 55.4%, notably Algeria by 64.4%.
Imports from Russia dropped by 18.4% and from China by 16.2%.
However, imports from Turkey rose by 39.2%.
