Moroccan Diaspora Remittances Surge 6.5% Despite Global Pandemic

In its latest information note on migration and development, the World Bank indicates that remittances to the Middle East and North Africa increased by 2.3% in 2020, to around $56 billion. It also stated that migrant remittances have "rather withstood the Covid-19 crisis", thus "defying" the "forecasts". According to the World Bank’s explanations, this increase is "essentially" attributable to "the strength of transfers to Egypt and Morocco".

Transfers to Egypt climbed 11% to reach a record level of nearly $30 billion. Those to Morocco increased by 6.5%. The same trend is observed in Tunisia. Transfers to this country increased by 2.5%. In contrast, transfers to countries like Djibouti, Lebanon, Iraq and Jordan are down 10% in 2020.

In 2021, "migrant remittances to the region are expected to grow by 2.6%, driven by a modest recovery in the euro area and against the backdrop of a slowdown in outflows from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries," the same source notes.

The Office of Foreign Exchange (of Morocco) in a bulletin on foreign trade indicators, reported that MRE transfers stood at more than 20.89 billion dirhams in the first three months of 2021 (end of March) compared to 14.73 during the same period a year earlier, an increase of 41.8%. According to the forecasts of Bank Al Maghrib (BAM), these transfers would reach 71.9 billion dirhams in 2021, then 73.4 in 2022.