Morocco's trade deficit worsens by 14.7% in 1st quarter

Morocco's trade deficit has worsened by 14.7% in the first quarter of 2004, compared to the same period of 2003 when the deficit was worth 12.2 billion DH (US$ 1.35 million), says the Exchange Office.

The source ascribes this to a hike of 7.5% in imports that reached 35.7 billion DH (US$ 3.9 Bln) and a less important increase in exports which amounted to 27.7 billion DH (US$ 3.07 Bln) as at March 2004.

More generally, Morocco's trade transactions with foreign countries totalled 57.4 billion DH (US$ 6.3 Bln) as compares to 54.25 billion DH (US$ 6.07 Bln) last year.

Morocco's oil bill rose by 64.9% between the first quarter of 2003 and the first quarter of 2004, from 1.62 billion DH (US$ 180 Bln) to 2.68 billion DH (US$ 297.7 Bln).