TUNIS: More than 55 percent of Tunisian imports come from the European Union (EU) during the first four months of the current year, Tunisian Minister of Commerce Zied Laadhari said on Monday. At a press briefing here in the government headquarters, Laadhari said, besides the imports from the EU, 8.4 percent of Tunisian imports come from China, 6.2 percent from Arab countries, 4.6 percent from Turkey, 4.2 percent from North America and 3 percent from Russia. According to Laadhari, imports from the EU reached 22.16 billion dinars (about 9.086 billion U.S. dollars), including semi-industrial products and industrial equipment.
The Tunisian minister said that 75 percent of Tunisian exports are to euro zone countries, 10 percent to Arab countries, 3 percent to North America and 9 percent to other countries of the world. The deficit stood at 1.272 billion dinars (about 0.52 billion dollars) by the end of April 2017, said the Tunisian minister of commerce. According to the minister, in April exports grew by 10 percent, reaching 2.669 billion dinars (about 1.09 billion dollars) against 2.429 billion dinars (about 0.995 billion dollars) in April 2016. On the other hand, imports were curving by 2 percent in the same period. The deficit of the Tunisian trade balance since the beginning of this year has been mainly caused by the increase in energy imports at the rate of 5 percent. Moreover, 86 percent of Tunisian imports in 2016 were raw materials and important products for the Tunisian national economy.
