Tunisian foreign trade suffered a marked deterioration in March, against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine. Exports were down 5.8% while imports jumped 10.4% compared to the previous month. The monthly trade deficit thus stands at nearly 2 billion dinars (around €620 million).
While Russia’s invasion of Ukraine drove up the price of hydrocarbons, Tunisia saw its energy bill jump in March and its trade deficit widen. Thus, while the overall volume of imports remains stable (+0.2%), the value has increased by more than 10% according to the National Institute of Statistics (INS). The cost of energy product imports more than doubled (+117%). What more than offset the decline in imports of food products (57.2%), raw materials and semi-finished products (-8.4%) and capital goods (-5.4%).
Nevertheless, over the whole of the first quarter of 2022, trade volumes increased respectively by 8.8% for export and 8.7% for import compared to the last quarter of 2021.
Falling phosphate exports
The monthly trade deficit, in March 2022, widened to 1960.3 MD (620 M€) against 1560.4 MD (480 M€) in February. The coverage rate, in March 2022, lost 5.7 points compared to February 2021 to stand at 69.6%.
This contraction is mainly due to the sharp drop in exports of the mining, phosphates and derivatives sector (-60.3%) combined with the drop in the export volume of energy products (-27.1%). On the other hand, the volume of exports of the textiles, clothing and leather sector increased by 1% and that of miscellaneous industries by 4.4%.
Excluding energy, however, Tunisia’s foreign trade as a whole fell in March with a drop of 4.4% for exports and 10.4% for imports. Here too, the effect of the invasion of Ukraine is noticeable. Since over the whole of the 1st quarter, volumes remained on the rise. From January to March, foreign trade increased by 8.5% for exports and 13.5% for imports, compared to the 4th quarter of 2021.
