World demand for Tunisia's goods and services expected to ease to 4.4% in 2017 (ITCEQ)

"World demand for Tunisia's goods and services is expected to ease to 4.4% in 2017, compared to the marked improvement in 2015 (5.4%) thanks to trade with the EU," according to a note on "the global conjuncture evolution and its impact on the Tunisian economy," published by The Tunisian Institute of Competitiveness and Quantitative Studies.

Indeed, "in view of the gradual recovery in the EU trade, demand targeting Tunisia on the part of this region grew by 6.0% in 2015, compared to 4.3% in 2014. This demand is expected to grow less rapidly in 2016 and 2017 (3% and 3.6%, respectively).

Similarly, the demand targeting Tunisia from other countries than the EU edged up by 2.4% in 2015 against a fall of 5.5% in 2014. Nevertheless, this demand is expected to increase remarkably in 2017, according to the same source, to reach 8.4%, mainly because of the gradual recovery in the import demand of Libya, which is Tunisia's main partner after the EU.

As regards Tunisian exports, the ITCEQ points out that they had continued to decline in 2015 and are expected to further drop in 2016 and 2017. "Such results are understandable in view of the Tunisian exports' concentration on the EU, whose demand growth remains less than that of other areas such as Asia, the Arab world and the sub-Saharan Africa and Libya, whose economic activity is still disrupted," the Institute explains, which believes that the diversification of export markets is a real issue for Tunisia to mitigate external shocks

source: TAP