Casablanca – Lahsan Maqnaa
Morocco’s Bank Lending Rose 3.22 Percent in 2018 to 870 Billion Dirhams ($91.6 billion).
Currently, bank lending accounts for about 79 percent of the country’s GDP.
These loans accounted for 30.7 percent of real estate loans, which rose by 3.65 percent in 2018 to reach 267.2 billion dirhams ($28.1 billion).
Processing loans accounted for 20 percent of total bank lending in 2018, amounting to 174 billion dirhams ($18.3 billion), up two percent from 2017.
Treasury and current account surpluses amounted to 177 billion dirhams ($18.6 billion) and increased by 6.18 percent in 2018.
This increase in particular is due to the high requirements of financial companies during this period for this type of short-term loans.
Treasury facilitated lending and current customers’ accounts that are directed to financial companies increased by 80 percent and reached 7.3 billion dirhams ($768 million).
Meanwhile, consumption lending increased by six percent in 2018 to 54 billion dirhams ($5.7 billion).
The increase in consumption lending is due to the increase of housing loans by 5.6 percent, as the housing loan is often accompanied by a consumer loan to finance the new housing.
It is also due to the increasing recourse of Moroccans to lending in order to finance some contingency expenses throughout the year, such as schooling and summer vacation costs.
Bank loans have been distributed among non-financial private sector companies with 39.5 percent, households and individuals with 38 percent, financial companies with 14.5 percent, non-financial corporations with six percent and municipalities with two percent.
Loans given to public sector companies saw the largest rise by 13 percent, while loans given to non-financial private sector companies remained stagnant at the same level as that in 2017.
However, individual and household loans increased by five percent, financial company loans by four percent and municipal loans by four percent.
