This decline, which could be explained by the drop or even the cessation of activity due to the effects of the pandemic, concerns both the growth in the financial debt of private companies (3.5%) and that of public companies (0,3%), said the same source.

The said report added that the third survey carried out by the High Commission for Planning (HCP) in January 2021, as part of the monitoring of the effects of the crisis of the new coronavirus (Covid-19) on the activity of companies, indeed reveals that more than 16% of companies were in permanent or temporary shutdown at the end of the second half of 2020.

Despite the deceleration in corporate financial indebtedness, the ratio of their debt to gross domestic product (GDP) increased to 74.1% at the end of 2020 after it was maintained at 68.4% in 2018 and 2019. This development is attributable to the sharp contraction of GDP in 2020 due to the health crisis.