The trade deficit increased over the first eight months of the year. It shows an increase of 3.2% to 196.85 billion DH, against 190.79 billion DH the same period a year earlier, according to the Foreign Exchange Office.
This increase comes from an increase in imports of goods of 4.6% to 491.95 billion DH and an increase in exports of 5.5% to 295.09 billion DH, specifies the Foreign Exchange Office in its bulletin on monthly foreign trade indicators. In this context, Morocco displays a coverage rate of 60%, up 0.6% year-on-year.
According to the Foreign Exchange Office, the growth in imports is mainly explained by the increase in finished equipment products by 10.9% to 113.99 billion DH, semi-finished products by 8.1% to 106.20 billion DH, finished consumer products by 4.3% to 111.28 billion DH and food products by 1.7% to 61.14 billion DH, combined with the drop in particular in raw products (-4. 7% to 21.45 billion DH) and energy products (-2.8% to 77.39 billion DH).
Concerning exports, they are marked by a sharp increase in the aeronautics sector (+21.2% to 17.42 billion DH, the largest increase), phosphates and derivatives (+11.7% to 53.50 billion of DH) and automobiles (+7.6% to 101.71 billion DH). For their part, exports from the “electronics/electricity” and “agriculture/agro-food” sectors were almost stable at 11.98 billion DH and 56.83 billion DH respectively, while those of “ textile and leather” fell by 0.7% to 31.78 billion DH.
