Industrial production index down by 3.6%
According to the Economic Dashboard – March 2025, published by the Tunisian Institute of Competitiveness and Quantitative Studies (ITCEQ), the industrial production index fell by 3.6%, from 91.3 in December 2023 to 88 in December 2024.
This decrease is mainly due to falls in production in the energy (-22%), textiles, clothing and leather (-3%), chemical industries (-0.9%) and building materials, ceramics and glass industries (-0.8%) sectors.
Conversely, production increased in the mining (+27.9%), agri-food (+8.3%) and miscellaneous industries (+0.4%) sectors, while the EMI remained stable.
More specifically, phosphate production went up by 13.9%, reaching 3.3 million tons in 2024 compared with 2.9 million tons in 2023.
This increase is attributed to productive investment efforts, such as the commissioning of new equipment at production sites.
The average price of raw phosphate remained unchanged for twelve consecutive months at $152.50 in November 2024, the lowest price since 2021, marking a 56% decline since December 2023.
Compared with 2023, resources fell by 15.6% over the course of 2024, while primary energy demand fell slightly by 0.13%. Consequently, the primary energy balance deficit increased by 14.4%, with the energy independence rate standing at 41% in 2024, compared to 48% in 2023.
Rising property prices
The ITCEQ reveals that the property price index increased by 4.9% for houses and 3% for flats in the first quarter of 2024 compared with the fourth quarter of 2023. By contrast, land prices fell by 3.4%.
In year-on-year terms, there was an increase for each type of property: 15.4% for houses, 4.9% for land, and 0.1% for flats.
On the subject of prices, the inflation rate dropped to 5.7% in February compared to 6% in January. In year-on-year terms, the consumer price index fell by 0.1% compared with January 2024.
This downward trend was mainly due to lower prices for clothing and footwear products as a result of the winter sales and for housing, water, gas, electricity and other fuels following the implementation of new electricity tariffs. By contrast, food prices rose by 0.5%.
These developments are reflected in the change in core inflation (excluding energy and food), which went down from 6% in January 2025 to 5.7% in February.
Regarding grain, the price of a metric ton of wheat decreased by 7% to $272.85 in November 2024 compared with October prices, while the price of maize rose by 5.8% to $201.33 over the same period.
The ITCEQ also notes that world and EU sugar prices fell by 2.5% and 2.8% respectively in November 2024 compared with October, while US sugar prices remained stable for the second consecutive month.
Lastly, the average price of a metric ton of extra virgin olive oil fell by 13% month-on-month in November 2024.
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