Morocco's hard currency reserves, expatriates remittances, tourism receipts up

Morocco's hard currency reserves went up from 83.8 billion Dirhams (US$7.98 billion) on July 31, 2001 to 98.94 billion Dirhams (US$ 9.42 billion) on the same date in 2002, scoring a 18.1% rise, the exchange office said.

These reserves represent the equivalent of 11 months of imports, compared to 10 months worth of imports by end of 2001.

Moroccan expatriates' remittances scored a 54.1% increase in comparison with last year, reaching 20.11 billion Dirhams (US$ 1.91 billion).

The country's tourism receipts also scored a rise of 5.4% during the January-July 2002 period, to reach 11.20 billion Dirhams (US$ 1.06 billion).

The average receipts during the same period calculated over five years are assessed at 10.62 billion Dirhams (US$ 1.01 billion).

However, the receipts of foreign investments and foreign loans decreased from 28.94 billion Dirhams (US$ 2.74 billion) to 3.06 billion Dirhams (US$ 0.29 billion), which is a 98.4% drop, the exchange office said.