The Tunisian Institute of Statistics revealed that the Tunisian economy recorded a record contraction in GDP by the end of 2020, which amounted to 8.8 percent, with a clear increase in unemployment rates, reinforced by closures related to measures to combat the Corona epidemic.
In details, the Government Statistics Institute stated that growth rates decreased in all sectors except for the agricultural sector, which grew by 4.4 percent. According to the institute, gross domestic product (GDP) at prices of the previous year decreased during the fourth quarter of 2020 by 6.1 percent compared to the fourth quarter of 2019. On this basis, the Tunisian economy would have recorded during the whole of 2020 an unprecedented contraction of 8.8 percent.
Likewise, unemployment rates increased to 17.4 percent during the fourth quarter of 2020 after 78.3 thousand jobs were lost in the period between the last two quarters.
Tunisia, where the number of unemployed increased to 725 thousand, lives in a state of social tension and repeated protests in the various governorates of the country. The number of the employed population in the last quarter of 2020 is estimated at 3433.4 thousand workers, compared to an average of 3511.6 thousand during the third quarter, recording a decrease by about 78.3 thousand workers.
Vital sectors of Tunisia's economy live in near recession due to the health pandemic, as 70 percent of hotels have suspended their activities and workers have been referred to technical or final unemployment. Also, the phosphate sector, which is one of the main sources of income for the country's economy, suffers from a state of complete paralysis due to the suspension of mining activity for long periods due to the protests of job seekers.
The services sector, which includes tourism and the activity of restaurants, hotels and cafes, recorded the most severe decline in activity, with a decline estimated at 13.3 percent over a whole year, followed by the manufacturing industries sector, which fell by 9.3 percent, and the non-manufacturing industries sector, which recorded a decline of 8.8 percent, compared to a growth rate of 4.4 percent for the agricultural sector, which is the only activity that witnessed positive growth last year.
Source (Al-Araby Al-Jadeed Newspaper, Edited)
