Moroccan Expat Bank Deposits Surge to $20 Billion, Boosting National Economy

These deposits increased by 4% for households to reach 786.4 billion dirhams, of which 185.8 billion dirhams are held by Moroccans living abroad, BAM specifies in its latest "Bank Credits and Deposits" dashboard. For their part, deposits from private companies reached 170.4 billion dirhams, an improvement of 8.2% compared to a year earlier.

In addition, the year ended with an outstanding amount of around 988.2 billion dirhams, thus marking an annual increase of 3%. "The annual increase of 4.4% in loans to private non-financial companies covers increases of 9.4% in working capital facilities and 2.5% in equipment loans, as well as a 5.1% decrease in real estate loans," the document notes.

As a result, loans taken out by households at the end of 2021 showed a year-on-year increase of 4.6%. An improvement that, according to the central bank, mainly reflects a 4.9% increase in housing loans. "Participatory financing for housing, in the form of real estate Mourabaha in particular, continued to grow and stood at 15.9 billion dirhams, after 11.3 billion dirhams a year earlier," BAM indicates.

Regarding the rates applied to new household loans, they showed stagnation in the fourth quarter of the year, standing at 4.24% for housing loans. However, a decline was observed for consumer loans. The drop is estimated at 4 basis points, i.e. a rate of 6.47%.