Morocco's trade deficit worsens by 41.5% end of October 2000

Morocco's trade deficit reached 38 billion DH ($ 3.79 billion) in the January-October 2000 period, worsening by 41.5% compared to the same period of 1999, says the latest newsletter of the Exchange Office.

By end October 2000, imports reached some 101 billion DH ($10.09 billion), marking an increase of 17.1% compared to 86.3 billion DH (about $ 8.3 billion) in the same period of 1999. Exports only grew by 6.1% to reach 63 billion DH ($ 6.3 bln), compared to 59.4 billion DH a year before.

The coverage rate of imports by exports dropped by 6.5 points, going down from 68.9 % to only 62.4 %.

Imports of crude oil have doubled going up from 6.8 billion DH to 12.44 billion DH.

Except for imports of equipment goods, imports of all other goods rose: energy products (79.1 %), food products (22.8%), and consumption goods (20%).

Regarding exports, the Exchange office says progression concerned mainly semi-finished products (21.9%), consumption finished goods (4.1%), food products (4.1 %), crude products of animal and vegetal origin (6.8 %).