The data issued by the Moroccan Ministry of Economy, Finance and Administration Reform revealed the deterioration of Morocco's budget deficit due to the Coronavirus pandemic, in light of a sharp decrease in tax revenues, compared to a rise in total spending, despite resorting to reducing it on public investment.
The budget deficit when taking into account the balance of the Corona pandemic control fund reached 2.55 billion dollars at the end of last May, an increase of 31 percent, compared to the same period last year. When the anti-Corona fund balance is not counted, whose allocations have reached about $3.2 billion since the virus spread, the budget deficit jumps to $4.36 billion, an increase of 124 percent.
The reason for this deterioration, according to the Ministry of Economy, is the slowdown in the collection of revenues in April and May, where they reached $2.3 billion in these two months, compared to $3.2 billion during the same two months of last year.
On the other hand, regular expenses increased by 10 percent in the first five months of this year, or about one billion dollars, due to an increase in employee wages expenses by 540 million dollars and goods and services expenses 450 million dollars.
Source (The New Arab Newspaper, Edited)
