Morocco Sees 11.7% Drop in New Business Registrations Amid Pandemic

After the restrictive measures related to the pandemic, the number of business creations was 54,691 for legal entities and 29,115 for individuals, for a total of 697,400 companies, of which 32.51% for the commercial sector, 24.37% for Construction and public works and real estate activities and 17.07% for various services, reports Hespress. As for individual companies, the number of which is 1,179,576 during the first fiscal year, according to the breakdown by sector, the commercial sector reached a rate of 57.31%, the industrial sector 10.43%, and the various services sector 7.55%, according to the Moroccan Office of Industrial and Commercial Property (OMPIC).

Although the creation of legal entities increased by 7.5% compared to 2019, the creation of individual companies fell by 34%. In addition, the health crisis has impacted the regions in different ways. The Casablanca-Settat and Rabat-Salé-Kenitra regions only experienced a 2% (Legal) and 2.8% (Physical) drop in 2020, with 276,175 legal entities and 279,901 individual companies created. As for Tanger-Tétouan-Al Hoceima, the decline is much more significant, 36.5%, with 10,773 companies created in 2020. In the Oriental region, the number of business creations decreased by 31% with 5,504 creations, according to the OMPIC barometer.

Moreover, the recovery from September onwards made it possible to limit the damage and close the 2020 fiscal year with a 12% decline. This performance in the last quarter also helped stimulate business creation and give hope for a gradual return to the pre-Covid-19 economic situation and suggests that people suffering from job loss could find a salvage activity.