Trade Deficit Reduced by 16.2% in H1 2020

Morocco’s trade deficit narrowed by 16.2% to more than 85.58 billion dirhams in the first six months of 2020, according to the Exchange Office.

This reduction is explained by the respective falls in imports and exports of goods by 17.5% to MAD 206.89 bln and 18.3% to MAD 121.3 bln, said the Exchange Office in its bulletin on foreign trade indicators at the end of June, noting that quarter-on-quarter, the fall is 25.1% for imports and 23% for exports.

On the other hand, the coverage rate fell slightly by 0.6 points to 58.6%, added the same source.

The drop in goods imports is due to the decline in purchases of almost all product groups namely, finished consumer goods (-14.3 bln dithams), capital goods (MAD -13.14 bln), energy products (MAD -12.04 bln), semi-finished products (MAD -8.8 bln) and gross products (MAD -2.07 bln). However, the purchases of food products increased by 6.7 billion dirhams.

Regarding exports, their decline is due to the decrease in sales in almost all sectors, particularly the automotive industry (-33% to 28.14 bln dirhams), textile and leather (-34.9% to 12.31 billion dirhams), aeronautics (-18.1% to 6.94 billion dirhams), agriculture and food-processing (-4.3% to 33.15 bln dirhams), other mining extractions (-29.7% to MAD 1.568 bln), phosphates and derivatives (-2% to MAD 24.99 bln), electronics and electricity (-5.2% to MAD 4.8 bln) and other industries (-19.7% to MAD 9.39 bln).