The financial debt of non-financial corporations (NFCs) experienced a significant deceleration to just 0.2% in 2023, totaling approximately 905.6 billion dirhams (MMDH). This insight comes from the 11th annual financial stability report published by Bank Al-Maghrib, the Insurance and Social Security Supervisory Authority (ACAPS), and the Moroccan Capital Market Authority (AMMC). The slowdown is primarily attributed to reduced debt levels among private sector companies, with the total financial debt of NFCs relative to the gross domestic product (GDP) decreasing to 61.9% in 2023.
The report highlights that private companies, which constitute two-thirds of the total NFC debt, saw their financial debt decline by 1.7% to nearly 592 billion dirhams. This reduction affected all debt components, including domestic debt, both banking (-0.4%) and bond (-8.6%), and external debt (-18.8%). Bank loans remain the primary source of funding for these companies, accounting for 90.8% of their debt.
Conversely, public enterprises have increasingly turned to the Moroccan financial sector for borrowing, with bank loans rising by 29.4% and bond issues by 8.8%. These increases have strengthened their respective shares to 25% and 19% of total debt, while external debt has decreased by over 5%. The overall debt of these public enterprises grew by 4% to nearly 314 billion dirhams, representing about 21.5% of the GDP.
The external component of NFC debt, which makes up 22% of their total financial debt, decreased by 7% to 196.7 billion dirhams, accounting for 13.4% of the GDP.
The report also notes a further deceleration in bond debt growth, limited to 1.6% compared to 2.4% in 2022 and 7.9% in 2021, due to operators’ perceptions of high-interest rates. Bank loans to NFCs, representing 68% of their total financial debt, slowed by 2.5% to 614.3 billion dirhams.
Regarding the composition of overall bank debt (banks and financing companies), loans for NFCs’ working capital needs decreased by 0.9%, constituting 42.4% of this debt.
Additionally, the report mentions a 4.3% drop in financing for real estate development in 2023. In contrast, the recovery in equipment loans, which began in 2022, continued with an 11.3% increase, raising their share to 37.5% of total bank debt.
Financing company loans overall increased by 2.8% to 62.2 billion dirhams between 2022 and 2023.
Leasing saw a rise of 3.8% to 57.3 billion dirhams, and guarantees increased by 17.1% to 1.2 billion dirhams. Conversely, factoring declined by 13.9% to 3.4 billion dirhams. These variations indicate a continued expansion and growing demand for financing despite fluctuations in certain credit categories. Leasing and factoring represent 9.3% and 0.6% of total bank debt, respectively.
