Tunis – Tunisia’s economy grew by 1.9% in the first half of 2017, a higher rate than the 1% growth registered in H1 2016, Tunis Afrique Presse (TAP) quoted the director-general of the National Statistics Institute (INS, in the French acronym), Hedi Saidi, as saying this Tuesday (15).
GDP increased by 1.8% in quarter two, driven by 3.8% growth in agriculture, 4.2% growth in services and 0.2% growth in the public sector.
Saidi pointed out that the services sector result came from advances in transportation, finance and tourism. Industry activity, however, shrank by 2% as a result of delays in oil and gas production operations, which led to a 5.3% drop in extraction industries activity.
“Growth in the first half of 2017 would have reached 2.3% instead of 1.9% if energy sector results had been better,” Saidi said at a press conference according to TAP.
The minister of Development, Investment and International Cooperation, Fadhel Abdelkefi, added that H1 performance was in line with the government’s estimates of 2.3% to 2.5% GDP growth for the entire year.
Investments
This Tuesday, Tunisia’s government also said that Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) flows increased by 1.8% year-on-year in H1 to TND 967.8 million (USD 401 million).
The president of the Tunisian Investment Authority (ITI, in French), Khalil Laabidi, said the bulk of investments went into energy and industry, with a smaller share going into services and agriculture.
“This positive FDI trend in Tunisia reflects the return of confidence in our country as an investment destination,” Laabidi said speaking at another press conference, according to TAP.
The government expects FDI to hit TND 2.5 billion (over USD 1 billion) in 2017, and TND 3 billion (USD 1.24 billion) in 2018. According to Laabidi, foreign investment in H1 will lead to 3,726 new jobs being created.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
