This is what emerges from the 2021 annual report of theOffice des changes. These commercial transactions increased by 24.8% or +170.3 billion compared to the previous year and by 10.4% or +80.9 billion MAD compared to 2019. This growth is driven jointly by imports and exports. With regard to imports, these increase by 104.5 billion DH or + 24.7% in 2021 compared to 2020 and amount to 527.4 billion DH. Exports, meanwhile, increased to a lesser extent, i.e. +65.7 billion DH (+25%).
As a result, the trade balance deteriorates by 38.8 billion DH, following the improvement of 46.7 billion DH recorded in 2020. The trade deficit stands at 198.6 billion in 2021 once morest 159.8 billion DH one year previously.
Main foreign trade ratios
As for the rate of coverage of imports by exports, this remains relatively stable: 62.3% in 2021 once morest 62.2% a year earlier. The import penetration rate measured by the ratio between imports and internal demand (GDP + imports – exports) stands at 37.9% in 2021 once morest 34.3% in 2020, i.e. a gain of 3.6 points .
The export effort, measured by the ratio between exports and GDP, increases by 3.1 points, from 24.5% in 2020 to 27.6% in 2021. The dependency ratio, which represents the average of imports and exports, relative to GDP, recorded an increase of 3.9 points: 35.9% in 2021 once morest 32% the year before.
Trade balance by product groups
Thus it appears that the rate of coverage of imports by exports shows contrasting results. The coverage rate of the trade balance for semi-finished products continues to increase, which began in 2020. It stood at 78.7% in 2021 once morest 62.8% in 2020 and 55.6% in 2019.
After falling by 14.9 points in 2020, food products saw their coverage rate increase by 2 points. The upward trend in coverage ratios is due to stronger growth in exports than in imports.
On the other hand, the coverage rates for raw products and consumer goods recorded drops of 10.4 points and 3 points respectively in 2021, following having increased in 2020. The coverage rate for capital goods also fell, from from 48.1% in 2020 to 44.6% in 2021.
