Tunis inflation rate drops to 6%

 The inflation rate fell to around 6% at the end of August 2013, while it was 6.2% late June 2013, Minister in charge of Economic Issues Ridha Saidi said on Wednesday.The fall in inflation is due to the implementation of several measures to guarantee adequate supply, organise distribution channels and control prices, the minister said after a Cabinet meeting held in Kasbah.The minister said the growth rate was revised down to  3.6% for 2013 against a projected rate of 4.5% due to lower activity in some sectors such as manufacturing industries, market services and agriculture.He noted that the growth rate reached 3% in the first half of 2013.Mr. Saidi also spoke of the continuous deficit of the trade balance which has impacted negatively on the balance of payments, noting that the coverage of imports by exports is now at 71%.This deficit is due to the pressure weighing on the State budget and the increase in the volume of spending under both salary expenditures and compensation.Compensation expenses will reach 5,732 million Tunisian dinars by the end of 2013, he said.The minister indicated that the Cabinet meeting examined measures to boost the pace of growth and key sectors such as tourism which has performed well and is expected to continue to do so in September 2013.According to Saidi, the volume of production in the mining and chemical fertilisers sectors is expected to reach 4 million tons in 2013, in parallel with the growth in the export rate of this product.He said that the unemployment rate stood at 15.9% now after almost reaching 16.5% early this year.Regarding Tunisia's ranking by the Davos World Economic Forum, Saidi noted that the security, political and financial situations (particularly the precariousness of the banking sector) are the main factors behind the decline in Tunisia's ranking.He said, in this context, "we address these indicators with transparency and meetings will be held to discuss all aspects related to the criteria taking into account in the ranking, besides examining the action to be taken to avoid failures."