The volume of Tunisia’s exports increased by 12.8% at constant price in the first quarter of 2018, while that imports stabilized (0.1%).
In value, exports grew by 19.9%, and imports by 21.1% during the same period, according to the note published Tuesday by the National Institute of Statistics (INS) on Foreign Trade at constant price.
In current values, exports reached 10,182 million dinars (MD) and imports amounted to 13,837 MD during the first three months of 2018, posting an increase of around 35.2% for export and 21.3% for imports, compared with the same period of 2017.
For non-energy external trade, prices increased at export by 19.4% and at import by 23.3%.
In the first quarter of the current year, energy prices recorded increases of around 3.3% for exports and 2.7% for imports.
It should be noted that the volume of energy exports grew by 83.6% until the end of March 2018. That of agriculture and agri-food industries has risen by 77.9%, while exports of the mining, phosphate and derivatives sector have decreased in volume by around 30.3%.
Regarding the volume of energy and lubricant imports, it rose by 33.8%.
In contrast, the volume of imports of agriculture and agri-food industries fell by 5.4% and that of mines and phosphates and derivatives decreased by 25.9%.
