The Governing Council of the Central Bank met on March 30, 2026, to examine the recent evolution of the economic and financial situation, both internationally and domestically, as well as inflation prospects.
At the national level, the BCT indicated in its communiqué that after several months of slowdown, the disinflation process had paused in February 2026, the inflation rate having reached 5% versus 4.8% a month earlier.
It also noted that this development resulted mainly from the strengthening of prices of fresh food products, whose rate of increase stood at 11.4% in February 2026, compared with 10.3% in the previous month.
Moreover, inflation of administered-price products evolved only marginally in February, at 0.8%, in a context of maintaining the price freeze on most major products. By contrast, core inflation, measured by the price index “excluding fresh food products and administered-price products,” registered a slight easing, returning to 4.8% in February 2026 from 4.9% a month earlier.
In the external sector, the current account deficit narrowed to 309 MDT (or 0.2% of GDP) by the end of February 2026, against 1,388 MDT (or 0.8% of GDP) a year earlier.
This improvement reflects, according to the BCT, the solid performance of the various items of the current account balance, notably the reduction of the trade deficit by 733 MDT compared with end-February 2025, to stand around 2.8 billion dinars.
The inflows from tourism receipts and income from work remained dynamic during the first two months of 2026, contributing to supporting external balances.
External inflationary pressures have recently intensified and are likely to be transmitted into the price formation chain.
