The Tunisian Institute of Statistics revealed the slowdown of the Tunisian economy during the first three months of the year 2020. As a result, the volume of trade exchanges with Tunisia at current prices reached 10.514 billion Tunisian dinars (about 3.6 billion dollars) at the level of exports, and 14.020 million Tunisian dinars (about $ 4.8 billion) in imports, which puts the export coverage rate of imports at 74.9 percent.
The volume of Tunisian exports decreased during the first quarter of this year by 13.5%, and imports also saw a contraction of 15.1%. It is expected that this economic contraction will continue if the economic movement does not return to its previous activity, especially with neighboring European countries, which attract about 70 percent of Tunisia's trade exchanges with the outside.
The decline in exports affected most of the economic activities, with the exception of the mining, phosphate and derivatives sector, which rose by 20.5 percent, while the volume of energy and lubricating oil exports decreased by 22.2 percent, and textile, clothing, and leather by 19.4 percent, in addition to mechanical and electronic industries, which contracted by 14.9 percent. In the same context, imports of mechanical and electronic industries decreased by 20.7 percent, the textile and clothing sector by 17.2 percent, and the agricultural and food industries by 10.3 percent. Tunisia fears the impact of the current economic recession on the rate of economic growth expected during the current year. As it is expected that the number of unemployed in Tunisia will increase by no less than 158 thousand unemployed who join the list of those looking for a job opportunity as a result of the Corona epidemic, knowing that the number of unemployed is not less than 630 thousand.
Source (Al-Arabiya.net website, Edited)
