Balance of payments deficit narrows at end of July as imports of non-essential goods drop
The balance of payments deficit narrowed at the end of July to TND 2814 million, it emerged from the last Executive Board meeting of the Central Bank of Tunisia (French: BCT). This was driven by a drop in imports of non-essential products, as demonstrated by the National Institute of Statistics (French: INS) foreign trade data. Tunisia's trade deficit was brought down in the seven first months of 2023 to TND 10, 228.3 million against TND 13,723.5 million one year earlier. This comes, some analysts say, as the result of exports growing 11.1% in the first seven months of 2023 with total receipts amounting to TND 36,151.1 million up from TND 32,529.1 million in 2022, the INS said. Imports remained almost stable (+0.3%). A considerable drop in non-essential imports, including fruits, plastic products, furniture and wood, toys, etc, brought about this stabilisation. Higher exports (+11.1% in the first seven months of the year) were reported in a number of sectors, mainly agrifood industries (+13.6%), textile, clo thing and leather (+13.3%) and mechanical and electrical engineering industries (+19.4%). Exports tended to grow, in particular, to Algeria (+48%) and Libya (+7%).
Source: Agence Tunis Afrique Presse