Tunisia’s annual inflation rate fell to 6.3 percent in November from 6.5 percent in October, official data showed on Wednesday. In September the inflation was at 6.7 percent, according to the National Statistics Institute (INS) in Tunisia.
The INS linked this to the slight drop in food and beverage prices’ rise to 6.3 percent from 6.6. percent, also, the pace of the increase in transportation services dropped from 3.4 percent to 2.9 percent.
In return, the prices of manufactured goods increased by 7.8 percent due to the rise in prices of house maintenance materials and cleaning products by 9.8 percent, as well as the prices of construction materials by 8.1 percent.
In the same context, the implicit inflation reached in the past month 6.7 percent against 6.8 percent in Oct. and 6.9 percent in Sep. During the past month, the family consumption index rose by 0.4 percent compared to Oct.
In the past year, the inflation in Tunisia totaled 7.3 percent and the annual inflation reached 7.1 percent in Jan. 2018, and 7.5 percent in Dec of the same year. Notably, it was 7.8 percent in June 2018 and this is the highest average since 1990.
In Oct. 2018, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) urged Tunisia to adopt more monetary restrictions for the sake of tackling record inflation levels.
The central bank in February raised its main interest rate to 7.75 percent from 6.75 percent to combat high inflation. This was the third raise in 12 months, however, the results were disappointing.
The IMF has approved a four-year, USD2.9 billion loan for Tunisia, which promised to implement wide-scope reforms, especially in the private sector institutions. However, the government programs were slow and the challenging economic condition didn’t witness a remarkable change.