Morocco's trade deficit worsened by 18.7% in 2003

Morocco's trade deficit soared to 25.26 billion dirhams (around US$ 3 billion) in 2003, i.e. 18.7% worse than in 2002, as a result of a 4% increase of imports and a 3.6% decrease of exports, according to temporary figures released by the exchange office.

Morocco's foreign trade amounted at 218.87 billion dirhams (around US$ 25 billion) in 2003 ("1%), including 135.56 billion Dh (US$ 15.5 billion) of imports ("4%) and 83.30 billions (US$ 9.5 billion) of exports (-3.6%), the office says.

The same source said except for food, beverages and tobacco imports, which dropped by 23.6% compared to 2002, all other imported products experienced a rise in value. Finished consumption products hold the first rank with a 23.7% share in overall imports, followed by semi-finished products (22.8%), equipment goods (22.1%), energy and lubricants (15.5%) and animal, vegetal and mineral crude products (7.2%).

Imports of finished food products rose by 2.9%, semi products by 8.4%, equipment goods by 14.1%, energy and lubricants by 4.3% and crude products by 9%.

Exports totaled 83.30 billion dirhams (around US$ 9.5 billion) in 2003, i.e. a 3 billion DH (US$ 344.8 Mln) decrease. Only phosphates and derived products exports remained relatively stable (73.60 billions in 2002 to 70.46 Bln in 2003) and their share in exports improved by 0.6 points to stand at 15.4%

Similarly, food exports declined by 9.7% to 16.41 Bln DH (US$ 1.8 Bln) and their share in overall exports did not exceed 19.7%, against 21% in 2002. Likewise, energy products exports experienced a 64.8% fall from 2.43 Bln DH (US$ 279.3 Mln) in 2002 to 853.5 Mln DH (US$ 98.3 Mln), mainly due to a decrease in refined oil products.

Sales of finished consumption goods also regressed from 32.68 Bln DH (US$ 3.7 Bln) last year to 32.18 billion DH (US$ 3.6 Bln), i.e. a 1.5% decrease, mainly in cotton fabric (-55.4%).