Industrial production dedged down by 2.6% in April 2017, compared to the same period in 2016.
The National Institute of Statistics (French: INS) explained in a recently published analysis that "this decrease is mainly due to the decline observed in the manufacturing sector of other mineral and non-metal products (-3.8% ) following the decline in cement production, the chemical industry sector (-5.5%), the textile, clothing and leather (-2.8%) sector and the petroleum refining industry (-8.4%)."
According to the INS, production also dropped in the energy extraction sector by 13.6%, mainly due to lower production of crude oil and natural gas.
On the other hand, industrial production increased in the non - energy sector (+ 18.9%), following the resumption of production of crude phosphate (408 thousand tons in April 2017 against 290 thousand tonnes in the same month in 2016).
Industrial production edged up by 3.0% in mechanical and electrical industry and by 3.6% in rubber and plastics industry.
© Tunis-Afrique Presse 2017
