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Join on Telegram Rabat – Morocco’s budget deficit for the first eight months of 2024 stood at 40.2 billion dirhams (around $3.9 billion), a slight improvement from the 41.7 billion dirhams ($4 billion) recorded during the same period last year, according to the country’s Ministry of Economy and Finance.
The ministry attributed this narrowing of the deficit to a stronger increase in revenues, which rose by 11.9% to 227.74 billion dirhams ($22.2 billion), compared to a 7.9% rise in expenditures, which reached 211.42 billion dirhams ($20.6 billion).
The ministry’s report noted that revenues, after accounting for tax refunds and exemptions, had reached 67.1% of the 2024 Finance Law’s projections.
On the expenditure side, ordinary spending reached 211.4 billion dirhams ($20.6 billion), marking a 7.9% increase compared to the same period in 2023.
The increase was driven by higher personnel costs and spending on goods and services, with personnel expenses alone accounting for a 15.5 billion dirham ($1.5 billion) rise.
The report also highlighted a 1.6 billion dirham ($156 million) drop in compensation expenses, largely due to reduced subsidies for butane gas and soft wheat flour.
The partial removal of butane gas subsidies, implemented in May 2024, contributed significantly to this reduction.
However, the cost of sugar subsidies rose slightly, adding 500 million dirhams ($49 million) to the overall expenditure.
Meanwhile, Morocco’s debt servicing costs increased by 1.6 billion dirhams ($156 million), pushing the realization rate of debt interest payments to 72%.
Despite this, the government reported an ordinary surplus of 16.3 billion dirhams ($1.6 billion), driven by the robust revenue growth.
Investment spending rose by 10.6%, reaching 65.4 billion dirhams ($6.4 billion), with a realization rate of 65.2%.
The figures are part of the Treasury’s monthly report, which provides a detailed comparison of the government’s budget performance relative to the same period in the previous year.
