Reuters
RABAT, Dec 17 (Reuters) – Morocco’s trade deficit rose 11.8 percent in January-November from a year earlier, the foreign exchange regulator said on Monday, putting more pressure on the country’s foreign currency reserves.
The trade shortfall widened to 183.1 billion dirhams ($21.5 billion) from 163 billion dirhams in the same period last year.
Tourism receipts fell 2.3 percent because of lower business from the euro zone, the main source of foreign visitors.
Remittances from the 3 million Moroccans living abroad dropped 4 percent.
The cash-strapped country raised $1.5 billion with international bond issues in early December. This helped foreign currency reserves rise to 146 billion dirhams from 133 billion in October, according to the latest central bank data.
But even at their latest level, the reserves only cover about four months and five days of import needs.
The foreign exchange regulator released the following data on the country’s trade, tourism receipts, transfers by Moroccan emigrants and private foreign loans and investment (PFLIs) for the January-November period. Figures are in billions of dirhams.
Jan-Nov Jan-Nov Jan-Oct 2012 2011 2012 EXPORTS 164.19 159.29 150.05 IMPORTS 347.33 323.02 313.96 BALANCE -183.14 -163.73 -163.9 MIGRANTS 51.75 53.91 47.69 TOURISM 53.66 54.92 48.94 PFLIs 26.57 26.25 24.73
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