2024-02-04 12:06:00
© Reuters. People walk in a market in Morocco on October 1, 2023. Photography: Abdelhak Belhaki – Reuters.
RABAT (Reuters) – Morocco’s trade deficit fell 7.3 percent year-on-year in 2023 to 286 billion dirhams (28.6 billion), thanks to a rise in tourism revenues and a decline in energy imports, the exchange office said in a monthly report.
The exchange office explained that total imports fell by 2.5 percent on an annual basis to 715 billion dirhams, while exports rose 0.2 percent to 429 billion dirhams, adding that remittances from Moroccans abroad and exports from the automobile industry also contributed to improving the trade deficit.
Morocco’s energy imports decreased by 20.4 percent on an annual basis to 122 billion dirhams following a decline in demand and prices in global markets.
Wheat imports declined by 25.3 percent year-on-year to 19.3 billion dirhams, and imports of ammonia, an essential ingredient in fertilizer production, decreased by regarding 58 percent to 8.8 billion dirhams.
Morocco, which has the largest phosphate reserves in the world, announced a 34 percent decline in exports of phosphate and its derivatives, including fertilizers, to 76 billion dirhams.
Exports from the country’s automotive sector, where Stellantis and Renault factories operate, rose to an unprecedented level of 141 billion dirhams.
Tourism revenues also rose to unprecedented levels, jumping 11.7 percent year-on-year to 104 billion dirhams. Morocco also received an unprecedented number of 14.5 million visitors last year.
Remittances from Moroccans residing abroad increased by 4.0 percent year on year to an unprecedented level of 115 billion dirhams.
(Prepared by Abdul Hamid Makkawi for the Arab Bulletin – Edited by Hassan Ammar)
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