Morocco’s energy bills topped 100 billion dirhams at the end of August last year as a result of rising fuel prices on the international market since the beginning of the year.
The electricity bill for the first eight months of this year was AED103 billion, compared to AED45.1 billion for the same period last year, according to statistics released by the exchange.
The same department explained that this increase is due to an increase in prices and volumes of fuel purchases from abroad.
In general, the Kingdom’s trade deficit at the end of August amounted to 214 billion dirhams, as a result, imports reached 491 billion dirhams, and exports – 276 billion dirhams.
At the end of August, the rate of deterioration of the trade balance deficit in Morocco reached 56.1 percent, which reduced the level of export coverage of imports to 56.3 percent instead of 59.5 percent.
Food purchases increased by about 20 billion dirhams at the end of August due to a doubling of wheat imports due to rising prices and volumes.
At the export level, sales of phosphates and their derivatives rose by 67.7% to reach 77.8 billion dirhams in the first eight months of this year, compared to 46.4 billion dirhams in the same period last year.
The automotive sector also performed well with sales of AED 66.7 billion, up 29.3 percent, the highest level achieved by the sector in the past five years.
The exchange office also reported that exports of the agricultural and food processing sector reached 55.8 billion dirhams, with an annual increase of 24.1 percent.
Tourism and remittances
Tourism revenues amounted to AED52 billion, in line with the level reached during the same period in 2019 before the coronavirus pandemic.
Moroccans spending abroad amounted to AED10 billion, up from AED6.2 billion in 2021 and AED14 billion in 2019.
Remittances from the Moroccan community living abroad reached 71.4 billion dirhams, up from 64.1 billion dirhams, the highest level reached during this period in the past five years.
