Rabat – The flow of remittances from Moroccans residing abroad stood at MAD 6 billion ($577 million) at the end of January 2023, marking a 9.7% year-on-year drop from last year’s MAD 6.7 billion ($645 million).
Despite the dip in the flow of remittances, the volume recorded at the end of January 2023 remains higher than the average recorded between 2018 and 2020, according to data from Morocco’s foreign trade watchdog, Office d’Echange (OE).
In 2022, the flow of remittances hit a record $10.75 billion. The flow of foreign currency from the Moroccan community abroad has been on a steady increase over the past four years and only decreased slightly in 2019.
As COVID-19 disrupted economies around the world, remittances proved to be a stable source of foreign currency for the Moroccan government as their volume peaked between 2020 and 2021.
Remittances are of critical importance to the Moroccan economy: they are one of the county’s four sources of foreign currency following tourism, exports, and foreign investments (FDIs).
According to OE data, remittances made up 6.5% of Morocco’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2020. Meanwhile, a 2021 study from the Arab Union of Bank found that Morocco ranked second — behind Egypt — on the list of Arab countries receiving the largest volume of remittances from their nationals residing abroad.
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