Morocco: Budget Deficit of 59.2 Bln MAD at End of November (Ministry)

11 December 2020 Printable Version

Rabat - The budget deficit stood at 59.2 billion dirhams at the end of November 2020, against 40.5 billion dirhams a year earlier, that is an increase of 18.7 billion dirhams, according to the situation of charges and resources of the Treasury (SCRT) published by the Ministry of Economy, Finance and Administration Reform.

Compared to October, this deficit is worsening by 8.8 billion dirhams, mainly resulting from the acceleration of the pace of execution of investment expenditure (+ 5.7 billion dirhams compared to October 2020), said the same source.

If we exclude the surplus recorded by the Special Fund for the Covid-19 pandemic management, the deficit amounts to nearly 67.6 billion dirhams, an increase of almost 27 billion dirhams compared to the same period in 2019, said the ministry, noting that the evolution of ordinary receipts and expenditure shows a negative ordinary balance of nearly 14.4 billion dirhams, against 13.4 billion dirhams at the end of October, reflecting an acceleration in the execution pace of ordinary expenditure versus receipts.

Compared to the forecasts of the 2020 amending appropriation bill, the rate of implementation of ordinary revenues, on a net basis of refunds, rebates and tax refunds, stood at 87.9% against 86% a year earlier. This revenue behavior covers realization rates of 93.3% of tax revenues and 58% of non-tax revenues, added the same source, noting that compared to the same period of the year 2019, these revenues recorded a decrease of MAD 16.8 billion, including MAD 13.7 billion in tax revenue and MAD 2.8 billion in non-tax revenue.

The ministry also underlined that ordinary expenditure recorded an execution rate of 88.5% compared to the forecasts of the amending appropriation bill and increased by nearly 10.1 billion dirhams (+ 5%) compared to the same period of the year 2019.

Regarding investment spending, issues showed a realization rate of 78.4% compared to the forecasts of the amending appropriation bill and a decrease of nearly 2.3 billion dirhams (-4.1%) compared to the same period of 2019, said the same source, explaining that this evolution is mainly attributable to the decrease in spending under ministerial budgets.

As for the special treasury accounts, they showed a surplus of MAD 10.7 billion against MAD 4.9 billion a year earlier, ie an increase of MAD 5.8 billion. This surplus is explained, by up to MAD 8.3 billion, by the surplus generated by the Special Fund for the Covid-19 pandemic management and, for the rest, by the positive net flows recorded by the other special Treasury accounts against 4.9 billion dirhams at the end of November 2019.