Morocco’s Public Debt Rises to 65.3% of GDP, Raising Economic Concerns

According to the explanations of Bank Al-Maghrib (BAM) in its annual report for the 2018 financial year, this development covers an increase of 6.6% to 574.6 MMDH or 51.9% of GDP in the domestic component of this debt and a decline of 3.4% to 148.1 MMDH (13.4% of GDP) in the external component.

What about the characteristics of this debt? The same source indicates that the average life of its domestic component has decreased from 6 years and 5 months to 6 years. This is due to the predominance of short maturities in the Treasury’s gross borrowings in 2018, with a share of 53.1% instead of 46.8% a year earlier. Similarly, the average cost has decreased by 16 basis points to 4.4%.

As for the external debt, its currency structure remains dominated by the euro at 63.3%, with a decline of 2.3 percentage points, BAM specifies. The share denominated in dollars increased from 27.8% to 28.5%. The average cost has decreased by 21 basis points to 2.4%.

In total, the outstanding public external debt amounted to 326.5 MMDH, or 29.5% of GDP instead of 31.3% in 2017. Multilateral institutions hold 48.8% of it, compared to 28.4% for bilateral creditors and 22.8% for the international financial market and commercial banks, details the same source.