Foreign private investments and loans drop by 56 percent

Foreign private investments and loans to Morocco dropped by about 56 % during the first four months of 1998, going down from 2.5 billion dirhams at the end of April 1997 to 1.10 billion at the end of April 1998.

The Moroccan exchange office which reported the news in its latest newsletter said a breakdown of the investment or loan operations shows a noteworthy drop at the level of direct investments which decreased by 59.5 % going down from 1.61 billion DH to only 652 million dh ($ 1= 9.11 dh).

The loan operations returns dropped by 75.5 percent to stand at the end of April 1998 at some 159 million DH compared to 650 million the previous year.

Portfolio investments increased by 45.8 % standing at nearly 261 million DH compared to 179 million at the end of April 1997.

Regarding other external returns, the newsletter said the remittances of Moroccan nationals settled abroad dropped by 3.4% going down from 5.45 billion DH to 5.26 billion, while travel receipts recorded a slight increase of 0.7 % going up from 4.23 billion DH to 4.5 billion DH.