Moroccan Diaspora Remittances Surge 41.8% Despite Global Pandemic

In the first three months of 2021, MRE transfers climbed 41.8%, from 14.73 billion dirhams (MMDH) at the end of March 2020, to over 20.89 MMDH in the 1st quarter of 2021, exceeding their pre-crisis level of 15.1 MMDH in Q1-2019, proof of their resilience to the health crisis. According to Younes Chebihi, a professor at the University of Bordeaux and a member of the French Laboratory for Research in International Economics and Finance (LAREFI), cited by the Map, this feat can be explained by three hypotheses.

"Firstly, the permanent and frequent nature of these transfers due to the family ties that exist between the senders and the beneficiaries of these funds. Indeed, according to a study by Bank Al-Maghrib (BAM) and the World Bank (WB), 83% of the beneficiaries surveyed are close family members of the senders," said Chebihi, who links this increase to a second hypothesis, which is the closure of businesses and leisure places having created a decrease in consumption in the issuing countries in favor of the increase in transfers to the recipient countries.

The third reason is that of the ban on the movement of people, which has led to a decrease in informal channels in favor of formal channels, also confirmed by the World Bank in its report called "Migration and Development Brief 34". However, "although it is unlikely that the growth in MRE transfers will be maintained at the same level as the first quarter, they will remain resilient and continue their evolution to record an annual increase of 7.1% in 2021 and 7.6% in 2022, according to the projections of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)," the professor specified.

In addition, the central bank plans that following the 5% increase to 68 MMDH in 2020, these transfers will reach 71.9 MMDH in 2021, then 73.4 MMDH in 2022. Thus, in addition to the measures already in place to facilitate the transfer of funds from MREs, more efforts are still needed, Chebihi stressed.