Moroccan Local Authorities Report 3 Billion Dirham Surplus Amid Economic Challenges

At the end of October 2020, the local authorities obtained a surplus of 3 billion dirhams against 5.6 billion dirhams for the first ten months of 2019. This figure takes into account investment expenditure of 9 billion dirhams, positive balances of special accounts of 645 million dirhams and annex budgets of 2 million dirhams. This is what emerges from the statistical bulletin of local finances published by the General Treasury of the Kingdom, reports Aujourd’hui Le Maroc, stressing that this figure should be used to cover the committed expenses that must be paid during the last two months of 2020, and if possible, the expenses that must be paid in 2021.

Regarding the ordinary revenues of the local authorities, the point made in October 2020 shows a 16.6% drop in ordinary revenues, thus returning to 30 billion dirhams. This is explained by the decline in transferred revenues of 16.5%, revenues managed by the State, of 12.3% and revenues managed by the local authorities of 20.9%.

As for ordinary expenditure, it fell by 4%, recording 18.7 billion dirhams, after a 10.5% decline in expenditure and other goods and services. A decline transformed into a 0.9% increase in personnel expenditure and a 5.6% increase in debt interest charges. Thus, the total expenditure made by the local authorities amounts to 29.1 billion dirhams, a drop of 8.3% compared to the same period in 2019.

It should be noted that the profit generated by the budgets of the local authorities at the end of October 2020, in addition to the borrowing revenues of 1.9 billion dirhams, made it possible to repay a large part of the debt for 1.45 billion dirhams and to reconstitute the profits for 3.4 billion dirhams, the TGR stressed.