ECONOMIC HEADLINES
| MOROCCO | FOREIGN TRADE | Widening of the trade deficit at the end of February 2022
At the end of February 2022, exports of goods and services amounted to MAD 73.8 Bn, up 19.9%. Likewise, imports increased by 30.0% to MAD 100.2 Bn. To this end, the global trade deficit stands at MAD -26.4 Bn against MAD -15.5 Bn a year earlier. The over-all coverage rate dropped by 6.3 points to 73.6%.
Travel receipts and workers’ remittances decreased respectively by 24.0% and 1.8% to MAD 3.3 Bn and MAD 13.1 Bn. However, receipts from FDI surged by 8.0% to MAD 4.1 Bn.
| GABON | FOREIGN TRADE | Exports up 8% in 2021
According to the Ministry of Economy, Gabon’s exports reached FCFA 3,259.5 Bn in 2021 against FCFA 3,015.3 Bn in 2020, i.e. an increase of 8.1%. Asia remains the country's main customer with 67.9% of exports, ahead of Europe (22.6%), Africa (3.9%) and Oceania (3.3%). The main exported products are: oil, sawn wood and works, manganese and palm oil. Regarding imports, these show a drop of 6.7% in 2021 to settle at FCFA 1,234.7 Bn.
| MOROCCO | SURVEY | The capacity utilization rate up 2 pts to 71% in February 2022
The results of Bank Al-Maghrib's monthly business survey for the month of February 2022 show an improvement in production and sales. In this context, the production capacity utilization rate stands at 71%, up 2 pts compared to January 2022. Meanwhile, orders would have stagnated during the same period while order books would have settled at a level below normal.
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