TUNIS, April 15 -- Tunisia suffers a trade deficit of 3.88 billion dinars (1.67 billion U.S. dollars) in the first quarter of 2017, the National Institute of Statistics (INS) of Tunisia announced on Saturday.
The deficit widened 8 percent year on year to 66 percent, said the INS in a periodic note.
The continued worsening of Tunisia's trade deficit is mainly due to the rising import, which grows 20.3 percent as export up only 7.4 percent.
According to the INS, the sharp increase of Tunisian imports is also attributed to larger energy imports as well as the surge in imports of oil and refined products.
The European Union, however, recorded a remarkable 10.6-percent increase in its imports from Tunisia, it added.
