The exchange office in Morocco (a government institution) revealed that the trade deficit declined 22.2 percent to 120 billion dirhams (13 billion dollars) in the first nine months of 2020, compared to the same period last year.
The COVID-19 pandemic has reduced the cost of energy imports slowed trade and led to an economic downturn that has hurt demand. Morocco expects an economic contraction of 5.8 percent this year and a budget deficit of 7.5 percent of gross domestic product.
Morocco's imports decreased by 16.2 percent to 3.7 billion dirhams, while exports fell 11.8 percent to 187 billion dirhams in the period from January to the end of September compared to the first nine months of 2019.
Energy imports, which include gas and oil, declined 34.6 percent to 37.7 billion dirhams after the drop in prices, while Morocco's grain harvest this year shrank 39 percent due to drought, which caused a jump in soft wheat imports to 11 billion dirhams and barley to 1.9 billion dirhams.
Tourism revenues fell 59.5 percent to 24.3 billion dirhams, while remittances from Moroccans living abroad rose 2.2 percent to 50.5 billion dirhams, while foreign direct investment fell 28.3 percent to 10.8 billion dirhams.
Source (Al-Araby Al-Jadeed Newspaper, Edited)
