Morocco: Trade Deficit Narrowed by 1.9% at the end of April (Exchange Office)

31 mai 2020 Printable Version

Rabat - Morocco's trade deficit narrowed by 1.9% to nearly MAD 66.25 billion during the first four months of the current year, according to the Exchange Office.

This reduction is explained by the respective decreases in imports and exports of goods from 12.6% to MAD 147.74 bln and 19.7% to MAD 81.49 bln, under the impact of the health crisis related to the pandemic of the novel coronavirus (Covid-19), said the Exchange Office in its recent bulletin on foreign trade indicators, adding that the coverage rate has lost 4.8 points to 55.2%.

The decline in imports of goods is due to the decrease in imports of capital goods (-7.8 bln dirhams), energy products (-5.7 bln dirhams), finished consumer goods (-5.4 bln dirhams), semi-finished products (-4.4 bln dirhams) and gross products (-1.7 bln dirhams), added the same source. On the other hand, purchases of food products increased by more than MAD 3.9 billion.

With regard to exports, their decline is the result of the drop in sales in most sectors, particularly the automotive industry (-39%), textiles and leather (-28.3%), aeronautics (-33.9%), agriculture and food processing (-7%), other mining activities (-30%), electronics and electricity (-1.9%) and other industries (-15.7%). Regarding the sales of phosphates and derivatives, they increased by 0.2% to MAD 34 million.

The balance of trade in services showed a declining surplus of 9.1% to 24.6 billion dirhams, the Exchange Office said, noting that exports and imports of services went down by 11.1% and 12.8% respectively.