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Tunisia's foreign exchange reserves lowest in 15 years

January 25, 2018 at 9:32 am

Tunisian riyal [PRORusty Clark/Flickr]

The Central Bank of Tunisia has stated that Tunisia’s foreign exchange reserves in January reached TND 12.306 billion ($5.12 billion), its lowest rate in 15 years.

In 2017 the foreign exchange reserves started at TND 12.93 billion ($5.63 billion).

The decline in foreign exchange reserves accelerated in 2017 due to the increase in the deficit of trade balance and the decline in the exchange rate of the Tunisian dinar against the dollar and the euro.

Throughout 2017 the Tunisian dinar exchange rate fell by 9 per cent and reached TND 2.48 per dollar, down from TND 2.23 per dollar at the beginning of 2017.

The same year Tunisia’s trade deficit rose by 23 per cent compared to 2016 and reached TND 15.6 billion ($6.49 billion dollars), according to the Tunisian National Institute of Statistics.

In order to ease the pressure on foreign exchange, the Tunisian authorities started to restructure the import market last year.

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