Unemployment in Tunisia falls whilst food prices soar

The Head of the Tunisian National Institute for Statistics Jalaluddin bin Rajab The Head of the Tunisian National Institute for Statistics Jalaluddin bin Rajab, released a survey on consumption, imports and exports.  It confirmed that the Tunisian economy started with a slow recovery. It reached a growth rate of 3.3 percent at the end of the first half during this year.
During a press conference, Rajab said that the National Institute of Statistics adopted a clear methodology for research and study. He said that the National Institute is trying to provide an accurate rate of unemployment for each region using the 2014 General Population and Housing Census.
Rajab said that the unemployment rate declined from 18.9 percent at the end of 2011 to 17.6 percent at the end of the first half of the current year. The number of unemployed was 900,000 at the start of 2012. Monastir recorded the lowest unemployment rate of 7.7 percent. On the other hand, Tataouine, which is located in the south-east, has the highest unemployment rate in the country with a result of 51.7 percent. The unemployment rate in Sidi Bouzid and Tozeur exceeded 29 percent.
The unemployment rate among those who are highly educated is roughly 26.9 percent. There was a decline of 6.7 percent compared to the same period last year 2011.
The Head of the National Institute of Statistics said that 24,500 jobs were created during the first quarter of the current year 2012. The number of jobs allocated to men was 11,000 and 13,500 jobs were for women.
The service sector had more than 50 percent of jobs.  The sector of manufacturing industries recorded a decline of 7 percent. Inflation rate stood at 5.6 percent.
Rajab said that according to the indicator of domestic consumption, the rate of inflation reached 5.6 percent that contributes to the total nutrition and beverages, which reached 6.8 percent.
He assured that there is a continuous rise in household consumption’s monthly index by 0.5 percent during July and August. He attributed this high increase of 7.6 percent, to the rise in tobacco prices after the recent amendment. In addition to that, the nutrition and beverage index rose by 0.8 percent, and the prices of most food items increased after Ramadan.
Improvement in phosphates exports:
Rajab explained that the volume of outside trade during the first eight months in 2012 reached 17.4074 billion dinars for exports and 2.8324 billion dinars for imports and coverage ratio stood at 70.1 percent. On the other hand, the deficit in the trade balance reached 7426 million dinars compared to 4.9241 billion dinars in spite of the obvious improvement in phosphate exports and its derivatives that stood at 18.8 percent.
Regarding exports, Tunisian transactions retreated with European customers such as Spain and Italy, while there was a surplus with Libya and France.
Tunisian economy began to recover as it recorded a positive growth rate of 3.3 percent during the first six months of the current year compared to the previous year.  The growth rate at the end of last year was negative and about 1.8 percent.