Imports push Morocco’s trade deficit to over 71 billion dirhams, while phosphates bolster export recovery.
Follow-up
The Exchange Office revealed that the trade deficit reached 71.63 billion dirhams during the first three months of this year, marking an increase of 16.9 percent compared to the same period last year.
Morocco’s foreign trade faces escalating challenges at the start of 2025, as recent data revealed a widening gap between exports and imports, leading to a troubling exacerbation of the trade deficit. While imports continued to rise due to heightened domestic demand for foreign goods, exports experienced a slight decline, adding pressure to the kingdom’s trade balance.
According to the Exchange Office’s bulletin on foreign trade indicators for March 2025, this development is attributed to an increase in imported goods (up 6.9 percent to 187.7 billion dirhams) and exports (up 1.5 percent to 116.07 billion dirhams), resulting in a coverage rate drop of 3.3 points to 61.8 percent.
The surge in imports spanned across all product categories, including raw goods (up 27.6 percent to 9.36 billion dirhams), food products (up 9.4 percent to 23.94 billion dirhams), final consumption goods (up 8.7 percent to 43.59 billion dirhams), capital goods (up 6.1 percent to 43.04 billion dirhams), semi-manufactured products (up 4.3 percent to 39.17 billion dirhams), and energy (up 0.5 percent to 28.22 billion dirhams).
Conversely, exports were supported by the “phosphate and its derivatives” sector (up 18.2 percent to 20.3 billion dirhams), “other extractive activities” (up 20.2 percent to 1.38 billion dirhams), “other industries” (up 16.8 percent to 7.52 billion dirhams), “aerospace manufacturing” (up 15 percent to 7.03 billion dirhams), and “agriculture and food industries” (up 0.8 percent to 26.74 billion dirhams).
In comparison, exports from the “electronics and electrical” sectors, “automotive,” and “textiles and leather” declined by 11.6 percent to 4.21 billion dirhams, 7.8 percent to 37.36 billion dirhams, and 1.4 percent to 11.51 billion dirhams, respectively.
On another note, the latest bulletin from the Exchange Office indicated that travel revenues reached approximately 24.63 billion dirhams by the end of March.
The office noted that these revenues grew by 2.4 percent, representing an increase of 579 million dirhams compared to the end of March 2023. According to the same source, travel expenses amounted to 7 billion dirhams, reflecting a year-on-year rise of 4.8 percent.
Thus, the travel balance surplus exceeded 17.62 billion dirhams during the first three months of 2025, showing an improvement of 1.5 percent compared to the same period last year. The office also highlighted that remittances from Moroccans living abroad reached 26.22 billion dirhams, down from 27.96 billion dirhams at the end of March 2024.
