Morocco’s Foreign Exchange Reserves Cover 7 Months of Imports

Morocco’s foreign exchange reserves rose to cover 7 months and 14 days of imports by August up from 6 months and 11 days the same period last year, the Central bank, Bank Al Maghreb said.

By the first week of September, Morocco’s foreign exchange reserves stood at 248.9 billion dirhams, that is a 17.7% increase compared to the same period in 2015, the central bank said in its weekly statistics.

This improvement of Morocco’s hard currency reserves is largely ascribed to the drop in the kingdom’s energy bill.

Morocco’s oil and gas imports stood at 29.394 billion dirhams by July 2016 compared to 41.947 billion dirhams the same period last year.

The Central bank said it maintained key interest rate unchanged at 2.25% in September, adding that the dirhams depreciated by 0.13% against the Euro and appreciated 0.09% against the dollar during the September 4-14 period.