Tunisia trade deficit widens

Tunisia's trade deficit widened by 23.5 percent year on year in the first 11 months of 2017 to a record 14.362 billion dinars ($5.8 billion), the State Statistics Institute said on Monday. The deficit is one of the main problems facing the government of Prime Minister Youssef Chahed. It has contributed to a slide in Tunisia's foreign currency reserves, which are now enough to pay for only 93 days of imports.
Two days ago parliament passed serval steps to address the deficit problem, including raising customs duties on some imported goods such as cosmetics and some agricultural products. The central bank also ordered local lenders to stop financing imports of about 220 products. The deficit was 11.628 billion dinars in the same period last year and 12.6 billion dinars in all of 2016. Imports rose by 19.2 percent to 45.333 billion dinars.