Morocco, Spain's first client in the Maghreb

Morocco is Spain's first client in the Maghreb, attracting 48.8% of Spanish exports to the region, wrote a Spanish newsletter.

Spanish exports to Morocco were worth $1.02 billion in 1998 compared to $880 million in 1997, the newsletter issued by the Spanish department of trade said. Last year, Spain's imports from the North African country stood at $731.97 million compared to $669.28 million in 1997.

The newsletter ascribed the evolution of Moroccan-Spanish exchanges to geographic proximity as well as to the increasing complementarity between the two economies and to the good performance of Moroccan economy which is getting closer to the European production modes.

According to the newsletter, manufactured products represent 70% of overall Spanish exports to Morocco, followed by semi-finished products, equipment and consumption goods.

A percentage of 27.8% of imports from Morocco consist of fish products which recorded a 3.3% increase in 1998 with $203.56 million, compared to $197 million the previous year. Spain is Morocco's second client of fish products after Japan.

Other imports, made up of phosphates (15.3%) and textile items (11.3%) have however dropped in 1998 going down from $88.25 million in 1997 to $83.97 million.