By Loubna Flah
Morocco World News
Casablanca, June 24, 2013
The liquidity strain continues to plague the banking sector in Morocco for the current year. The need for liquid assets has reached MAD 64, 6 billion last month compared to MAD 63, 7 billion recorded in the first quarter of the current year.
The acute liquidity shortage has soared considerably due to the different operations launched by the treasury outside the financial market, which has led to a substantial drain of liquidity.
The volume of bank deposits in Moroccan banks dropped from MAD 688, 9 billion recorded last year to MAD 678, 4 billion at the end of April 2013.
Morocco’s central Bank intervened once again to ease the liquidity strain. It has raised the volume of its interventions in the financial market. Bank al Maghrib pumped MAD 48, 2 billion into the domestic market compared to MAD 50 billion during the first term of the current year.
Fortunately for debtors, the soaring liquidity shortage has not led yet to a rise in interest rate; the latter reached 3%, a drop by two points compared to the first quarter of the current year.
Nevertheless, the shortage in liquid assets has engendered a slowdown in the growth of bank loans. The total amount of loans granted during the last four months dropped from MAD 590, 1 billion to MAD 578, 1 billion recorded in 2012, including loans granted to non-financial institutions and families.
Consumer loans, especially equipment dropped also by 2,2% falling from MAD 138 billion recorded in 2012 to MAD 135,8 billion during the current year.
