The Moroccan economy experienced an “exceptional” rebound during 2021, confirming its gradual recovery, according to the Department of Studies and Financial Forecasts (DEPF) under the Ministry of Economy and Finance.
“In Morocco and internationally, the economic and financial situation in 2021 confirms its gradual recovery. The support measures undertaken by the State since the outbreak of the health crisis, combined with the good results of the agricultural campaign, have favored an exceptional rebound of the Moroccan economy”, the DEPF points out in its economic report for January 2022.
This recovery dynamic concerned all sectors, with the exception of tourism and air transport which continued to suffer, as elsewhere in the world, from the effects of the crisis, says the Department, noting that this situation pushed authorities to adopt an emergency plan of two billion dirhams (MAD) to support the tourism sector.
In terms of demand, the recovery is also confirmed, driven by the good performance of household consumption expenditure in a context of moderate inflation and improving incomes, reports the DEPF.
The same goes for investment, the effort for which has been consolidated, benefiting from the favorable trend in imports of capital goods and receipts from foreign direct investments (FDI), the dynamics of creation of businesses as well as the maintenance of the public investment effort.
Regarding foreign trade, Moroccan exports consolidated in 2021 at a sustained pace and regained their double-digit dynamism, benefiting from the improvement in global demand towards Morocco.
At the same time, imports recorded a remarkable increase in line with the dynamics of economic activity and the recovery of domestic demand.
Given these developments, international reserves show a very high level, representing 6 months and 17 days of imports of goods and services.
In terms of public finances, the execution of the finance law shows good performance of revenue (implementation rate of 108%), particularly tax, which has made it possible to largely offset the increase in expenditure.
This development led, at the end of December 2021, to a budget deficit of around 6% of GDP, an improvement of 1.6 points compared to the previous year.
With regard to the financing of the economy, the growth of bank loans slowed down slightly at the end of November.
This development takes place following the decline in loans to the financial sector and the slowdown in the growth of loans to the non-financial sector.
The Masi and Madex stock market indices ended 2021 on a positive trend.
