Moroccans heated their cards abroad in the first half of 2022. More than 3.3 billion dirhams changed hands over the period, an increase of 80.9% compared to the first six months of 2021. For their On the other hand, foreign tourists return to Morocco and their payments increase by 215% compared to 2021. The details.
Payment indicators exploded at the end of June. Thus, according to figures provided to the newspaper “Le Matin” by the Interbank Electronic Payment Center (CMI), the number of payment and withdrawal cards continues to increase: 18.5 million are in circulation at the end of June 2022 against 17.8 million one year earlier. Although the increase in the number of cards is slowing down each year (+8% in the first half of 2020, +5.5% for the same period of 2021 and +4.1% at the end of June 2022), the market is still far from be saturated.
According to the CMI, more than 168 billion dirhams were withdrawn from Moroccan ATMs via payment or withdrawal cards in the first half of the year. This amount is up by 9.4% compared to the same period of the previous year. At the same time, the number of withdrawals rose by 10.5% while the average withdrawal fell slightly to 961 DH. Moroccan card payments are growing very steadily. Thus over the first 6 months of the year, 21.9 billion dirhams were paid by card, up 18.7%. The average payment continues its steady decline, settling at 358 DH against 383 DH a year earlier. This demonstrates both the deployment of contactless payment and the democratization of this means of payment.
Internet payments running out of steam?
While Internet settlements continue to grow, they are progressing more slowly than usual. Nearly 4.2 billion dirhams changed hands on the Web via payment cards between January and June 2022. This is an increase of 17.6% compared to the same period of 2021. But what may seem worrying, is that the pace of change is slowing down: 34.4% between 2020 and 2021 and 26.2% between 2019 and 2020. In the top 5 sectors of activity for Moroccan card payments are the mass distribution (24.2%), service stations (10.9%), clothing (10.3%), restaurants (7.3%) and, finally, the health sector (5. 8%).
Spending by Moroccans abroad is on the rise
Moroccans warmed up their cards abroad in the first half of 2022. More than 3.3 billion dirhams were thus paid by cards abroad over the period, up 80.9% compared to the first six months. of 2021. And even if we compare to the last “normal” year in terms of tourism, 2019, the progression is 52.50%. There is strong reason to believe that the increase in the tourist endowment, from 45,000 DH to 100,000 DH, plays a major role in this explosion of spending abroad. Withdrawals made abroad are not left out. They are 614 million compared to 409 million from January to June 2021, up 50%. And if we compare them to the same period of 2019, it is an incredible explosion of 123%.
Less tourism spending than before!
Foreign tourists return to Morocco and it shows in the use of their payment cards. Payments amount to almost 5.9 billion dirhams, up 215% compared to 2021. But this amount is still 20% lower than that of 2019. We are still far from a return to normal . We note that the average amount of payments goes up to 1,080 DH against 880 DH a year earlier. This suggests that the wealthiest tourists are already back, but that mass tourism is struggling to revive. Withdrawals by visitors to Morocco increased by 47.3% to 4.5 billion dirhams compared to 2021, but here again, this amount is down 19% compared to the first six months of 2019. Quite logically, the privileged sectors for payments by foreign bank cards are hotels (39.3%), restaurants (14.2%), bazaars (8.1%), supermarkets (7.2%) and duty-free ( 4.6%).