Reuters
Mon Jun 16, 2014 
RABAT, June 16 (Reuters) – Morocco’s trade deficit widened by 2.1 percent in the first five months of 2014 from a year earlier to 84.94 billion Moroccan dirhams ($10.28 billion), the foreign exchange regulator said on Monday.
However, the figure was well below an annual increase of 10.7 percent recorded for the first quarter of 2014.
Morocco’s exports rose 5.2 pct in January-May, thanks to sharply higher exports from the auto, electronic and aviation industries, which surged respectively by 37.2 pct, 25.2 pct and 14.1 pct, helping to reduce the deficit significantly.
The regulator said imports for January-May totaled 167.10 billion dirhams, up from 161.24 billion a year earlier. Energy imports rose 4.8 percent to 41.08 billion dirhams from 39.19 billion in the same period of 2013.
Wheat imports jumped 35.7 pct to 8.87 billion dirhams compared with the same period last year as the government suspended customs duties and introduced subsidies from the start of January to the end of April to counter rising world prices.
Tourism receipts increased by 3.2 percent to 21.66 billion dirhams, while remittances from the 4.5 million Moroccans living abroad fell by 1.6 percent.
Figures are in billions of dirhams:
Jan-May Jan-May Jan-Apr
2014 2013 2014 EXPORTS 82.16 78.07 64.57 IMPORTS 167.10 161.24 133.50 BALANCE -84.94 -83.16 -68.93 MIGRANT REMITTANCES 22.73 23.09 17.96 TOURISM RECEIPTS 21.66 20.98 16.77 FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT 9.54 11.64 7.59 ($1 = 8.2600 Moroccan Dirhams)
(Reporting By Aziz El Yaakoubi)
