Morocco’s Trade Deficit Widens 2.6% as Consumer Goods Imports Rise

– byGinette · 1 min read
Morocco's Trade Deficit Widens 2.6% as Consumer Goods Imports Rise

Morocco’s trade deficit stood at 154.46 billion dirhams (MMDH) at the end of September 2019, compared to 150.83 MMDH in 2018, an increase of 2.6%, according to the Office of Foreign Exchange.

The increase in imports of goods is mainly due to the increase in purchases of capital goods, finished consumer goods and food products.

However, imports of energy products and raw materials decreased by 2.7 MMDH and 1.5 MMDH respectively, according to the Office.

Indeed, the energy bill recorded a 4.5% decrease (-2.7 MMDH) to reach 58.03 MMDH at the end of September 2019 against 60.7 MMDH a year earlier, noting that its share in total imports stood at 15.9% against 17.1% a year earlier.

As for exports, they stabilized over the first nine months of 2019 at 211.4 MMDH against 204.1 MMDH, for the same period of 2018.