Morocco, Good Economic News in January

According to the report, the external balance of payments rose nearly 4 billion dirhams ($478 billion) in January, causing the trade deficit to shrink from 16 billion dirhams to 12 billion. The reason for the decline was a 24% decrease in wheat imports due to a better agricultural season and a 9% decrease in energy imports due to lower prices, Nuqudy.com reported.

As for other sources of foreign exchange, tourism revenues increased 6%, foreign investment increased 3%, and remittances increased 1%, alleviating significant pressure on Morocco’s reserves.

Nonetheless, the Moroccan banking sector is facing a shortage of liquidity due to high demand for loans and weak monetary reserves, Nuqudy observes. The central bank has responded to the situation by increasing loans to commercial banks by 70 billion dirhams last month. Its reserves declined 0.4% to reach 137.3 billion dirhams as a result.