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Rabat – The producer price index for Morocco’s industrial sector recorded an increase of 0.3% during the month of July against a month earlier.
A note from the High Commission for Planning (HCP) on Monday reported last month’s “manufacturing industries” data, which excludes the petroleum refining sector.
The note outlines an increase of 0.5% in the prices of “food industries.”
The notice also records an increase of 1.8% in “metallurgy” and a 0.1% increase in both the “pharmaceutical industry” and “manufacture of metal products,” excluding machinery and equipment.
Meanwhile, the HCP recorded a drop of 0.3% in the prices of “manufacture of other non-metallic mineral products.”
The same notice shows a decline of 0.8% in “printing and reproduction of recordings,” and a decrease of 0.2% in “manufacture of furniture.”
The HCP recorded a stagnation in the producer price indices in the “extractive industries,” “production and distribution of electricity,” and in the “production and distribution of water sectors” in the month of July.
In May, Morocco’s Minister of Economy Mohamed Benchaaboun acknowledged that several sectors suffer economic losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Among the industries that have suffered the impacts of the crisis is the export sector, which includes Morocco’s industrial sector.
The automotive sector also recorded a 96% drop as of the end of April, compared to an 86% drop in March.
Exports of aeronautics also reported a drop of 81% in April compared to a 52% drop one month earlier.
Morocco declared a state of emergency on March 20. Before easing lockdown measures in May and June, several industries closed due to COVID-19 outbreaks in working environments.
Benchaaboun said in May that the country had been losing up to MAD 1 billion ($1.09 billion) each day under lockdown.
The pandemic and lockdown did not only affect Morocco’s industrial sector, but also tourism.
The Moroccan Department of Studies and Financial Forecasts (DEPF) recently stated that the tourism sector experienced a 7% drop in added value in the first quarter of 2020.
The directorate added that the country’s tourism receipts declined by 33.2% in the first six months of this year, representing a loss of MAD 11.1 billion ($1.2 billion).
