Tunisia's foreign trade volumes saw a decline in April. Exports and imports in volume have dropped by 4.2% and 2.5%, respectively, after posting sharp increases in March, according to the latest note of the National Institute of Statistics (INS) on "Foreign Trade at constant prices base 2015 - April 2021", published Wednesday. As a result, and with a sharper decline in export volume than in import, the coverage rate loses a point and a half, to settle at 80.9% in April. Prices continue to rise, with a slightly more sustained pace for imports (+2.9%) than for exports (+2.5%).
Decline in export volumes for all business sectors
Regarding exports, all sectors saw their exports volume fall, with the exception of the textile, clothing and leather sector which has posted a positive evolution of 4.2%. The decline in volume (-4.2%) recorded at the overall level of exports comes mainly from a negative contribution of the energy sector (-26.2%) and agriculture and agro-industries (-17.4%). As for imports, the majority of product groups have contributed to this decline, with the exception of energy products whose volume has risen by 37.8% and food products which have been kept stable (+0.7%) compared to March 2021. It is the remarkable 11.1% drop recorded in the volume of purchases of consumer goods that has contributed most to the fall in the overall volume of imports.
Evolution of trade excluding energy
After two months of positive development, non-energy trade volumes have paused and are declining, with a more pronounced rate for imports (-6.4%) than for exports (-1.1%). On the other hand, non-energy prices went up by 0.6% for exports and 2.4% for imports, which caused a 1.8% drop in the terms of non-energy trade for the third consecutive month, to 94.7%.