Morocco's trade deficit has reached more than 311.6 billion dirhams in 2022, up 56.5% compared to 2021, according to the Foreign Exchange Office.
Imports increased by 39.6% to 737.73 billion dirhams and exports improved by 29.4% to 426.1 billion dirhams, said the Office, which has published its monthly indicators of foreign trade for the year 2022, noting that the coverage rate has lost 4.5 points to 57.8%.
The increase in imports of goods follows the increase in purchases of all product groups.
Indeed, the energy bill has more than doubled to 153.52 billion dirhams in 2022. This development is mainly due to the increase in purchases of gas-oil and fuel-oil (+ MAD 40.34 billion) driven by the increase in prices that have almost doubled (10,283 TD / T against 5,195 TD / T), and to a lesser extent by that of quantities (+7.2%).
Concerning imports of semi-processed products, they increased by 46.4%, following the growth of purchases of ammonia (21.39 MMDH against 6.91 MMDH). Imports of food products, for their part, show an increase of 44.9%.
This development is due to the increase in supplies of wheat, which have almost doubled under the price effect up 40.8%. In parallel, the quantities imported increase by 28.7%.
Purchases of barley also recorded an increase to MAD 3.2 billion in 2022.
Regarding imports of raw products, they increase by 49.9%. This development follows the increase in purchases of crude and unrefined sulfur (+8.03 billion dirhams).
At the end of 2022, exports of goods increased by 29.4% to 426.1 billion dirhams against 329.405 a year earlier.
This increase concerns exports of all sectors, led by phosphates and derivatives, the automotive sector and the agriculture and agri-food sector.
