Morocco's trade deficit down 14.3 percent first two months

Morocco's trade deficit decreased in the first two months of 1998 by 14.3 percent, going down from 5.2 billion dh ($541.6 million) in January-February 1997 to 4.5 billion dh ($468.7 million) this year.

The exchange office ascribes this good performance to a 22.5 percent growth in exports which increased to 11 billion dh ($1.1 billion) up to February 1998, up from 8.9 billion dh ($927 million) in the previous year. Imports also grew by 8.8 percent from 14.1 billion dh ($1.4 billion) to 15.4 billion dh ($1.6 billion), Map reported.

Phosphates and by-products exports saw a 50.7 percent increase, for a value of 2.3 billion dh ($239.5 million) against 1.5 billion dh ($156.2 million). The other exports which saw a good performance are sea fisheries (25.8 percent) and textile and leather goods (3.3 percent).

Meanwhile, exports of agro-food products regressed by 51.3 percent while agricultural exports remained relatively stable.

Morocco's imports remained dominated by cereals which are the second largest imported products behind machinery and equipment. Imports of cereals were worth 622.3 million dh ($65 million) up to February 1997 and jumped to 1.28 billion dh ($133.3 million) in February 1998, in view of wheat imports which were almost three times higher.

Imports of chemical products and transport equipment respectively progressed by 10.2 percent and 21 percent.

Purchases of oil decreased by 29.9 percent from a value of 1.5 billion dh ($156.2 Mln) last year to around one billion dh ($104 Mln) this year while imports of textile went down by 1.9 percent.