Morocco: Expatriates’ remittances exceed MAD 30.5 billion by end of April; FDIs increase by 5%

Remittances by Moroccan expatriates exceeded 30.56 billion dirhams at the end of April 2022, against MAD 29.03 billion a year earlier, according to the Office des Changes (exchange office).

These transfers are up 5.3% or 1.52 billion dirhams, said the Office in its monthly bulletin of foreign trade indicators for April 2022.

The Office also reported that the flow of Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) in Morocco increased by 5% by the end of April 2022 compared to the same period the year before.

The FDI flow amounted to MAD 6.14 billion in the first four months of 2022.

This performance is the result of a 7% drop in revenues that reached 9.8 billion MAD and a 3.66 billion Dirham decrease in expenditures (-22%), the Office said.

The net flow of Moroccan Direct Investments Abroad totaled MAD 5.17 billion in April, i.e. a 20% decrease compared to the same period last year.

The Office also reported a trade deficit amounting to 91.04 billion dirhams, up 43.6% compared to April 2021.

Exports improved by 34.2% to 139.01 billion dirhams and imports increased by 37.8% to 230.05 billion dirhams.

Tourism revenues exceeded 14.6 billion dirhams up to April 2022 compared to 6.54 billion dirhams during the same period of 2021. The revenues are getting closer to pre-pandemic levels of 2019, the exchange office said.

The recovery of tourism sector augurs well for foreign exchange reserves amid a higher import bill that led to deepening of the trade deficit to 43.6% up to April this year, or $9 bln.
Energy imports more than doubled to $4.3 billion while food imports, soil nutrients and semi-finished products deepened the trade gap.
Exports of phosphates, however, topped all Moroccan sales with $3.6 billion, followed by exports of the car industry sector with $3.2 billion.