SAccording to the Foreign Exchange Office, imports reached 165.55 billion for the first three months of the current year, once morest 123.42 billion at the end of March 2021, an increase of 34.1%, while exports increased by 29% to 99.98 billion at the end of March once morest 77.52 billion in 2021, specifies the Office which has just published its monthly indicators of foreign trade for the month of March.
The coverage rate, meanwhile, lost 2.4 points to stand at 60.4% once morest 62.8%.
The increase in imports of goods concerns the majority of product groups, observes the Office, noting that imports of semi-finished products have risen by 52.4% due to the increase in purchases of ammonia which have quadrupled, from 1.03 to 5.42 billion dirhams.
At the same time, the energy bill increased by 87.3%, mainly due to the increase in gas oil and fuel oil supplies (+6.18 billion) due to the 77.4% rise in prices ( 7884 dirhams/ton once morest 4444 dirhams/ton). Imported quantities also recorded an increase of 5.3% totaling 1689 mT at the end of March 2022 once morest 1604 mT at the end of March 2021.
For their part, imports of crude products rose by 78.3%, the Office said, noting that this increase follows, mainly, the increase in purchases of crude and unrefined sulphur, which more than tripled (+ 3229 million dirhams).
With regard to imports of food products, these rose by 24.3%, an evolution essentially dependent on the significant increase in barley purchases which stood at 1.37 billion at the end of March 2022 once morest only 248 million in dirhams at the end of March 2021. Oilcake and wheat supplies increased by 43.7% and 11.4% respectively.
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