Tunisia’s foreign trade with the outside world recorded, during the first eight months of 2026, an increase in value for both exports and imports, according to external trade results at current prices.
Exports reached 44,671.6 million dinars, compared with 41,372.4 million dinars in the same period of 2025, a rise of 8%.
Imports, for their part, rose by 11.6%, to 62,525.4 million dinars, compared with 56,011.3 million dinars a year earlier, according to data published Saturday by the National Institute of Statistics (INS).
Sectorally, exports of mechanical and electrical industries rose by 8.5%, while those of agricultural and agro-food industries increased by 20.8%, driven notably by the rise in olive oil sales, which reached 3,769.7 million dinars, from 2,702.4 million dinars.
The energy sector also registered a growth of 44.3%, thanks to the increase in exports of refined products, which amounted to 1,115.2 million dinars, up from 504.2 million dinars during the same period of 2025.
By contrast, exports of the phosphate and derivatives sector fell by 12%, while exports of textiles, clothing and leather declined by 4.8%.
Regarding imports, the rise affected the various categories of products. Imports of energy products rose by 28.5%, those of food products by 17.1%, those of capital goods by 6.2% and those of consumer goods by 8.2%. Imports of raw materials and semi-finished products, for their part, increased by 7.9%.
Geographically, the European Union countries absorbed 70.2% of total Tunisian exports during the first eight months of 2026, for a value of 31,346.4 million dinars, compared with 29,165.9 million dinars during the same period in 2025.
Exports rose to France by 3.4%, to Italy by 5.2% and to Germany by 2.1%. They, however, declined toward Greece and Malta by 19.9% and 10.8% respectively.
On Arab markets, Tunisian exports increased by 76.6% to Egypt and by 50.4% to Saudi Arabia. They, however, decreased by 25.1% to Morocco, by 13.1% to Algeria, and by 1.1% to Libya.
On the import side, the EU share represented 45.1% of total Tunisian purchases abroad, for a value of 28 175 million dinars, compared with 24 410.1 million dinars in the first eight months of 2025.
Imports from France rose by 17% and those from Italy by 16.7%, while they fell from Bulgaria and Portugal.
Outside the European Union, imports rose from Turkey, India and China, while they declined from Russia and the United Kingdom.
The trade deficit stood at 17 853.8 million dinars, compared with 14 639 million dinars during the first eight months of 2025.
The import coverage rate by exports also fell to 71.4%, from 73.9% in the same period of the previous year.
The overall trade deficit is primarily explained by the deficit recorded in the energy sector, which reached 8 930.2 million dinars, to which the deficit of raw materials and semi-finished products, estimated at 4 544.1 million dinars, the deficit of capital goods at 3 125.5 million dinars and the deficit of consumer goods at 2 237.2 million dinars are added.
Conversely, food products generated a surplus of 983.1 million dinars.
Data also show that the non-energy trade deficit stood at 8 923.7 million dinars, while the energy deficit reached 8 930.2 million dinars, compared with 7 148 million dinars during the first eight months of 2025.
