Marrakech – Remittances from Moroccans living abroad (MREs) reached MAD 89.22 billion ($8.92 billion) at the end of August 2026, representing a 9% increase compared to the same period last year, according to provisional figures from the Office des Changes.
The inflows gained MAD 7.37 billion (%737 million) from the MAD 81.85 billion ($8.18 billion) recorded a year earlier.
The improvement extended across Morocco’s external accounts. Travel receipts climbed 9.7% to MAD 97.93 billion ($9.79 billion), while travel spending rose 6.6% to MAD 23.31 billion ($2.33 billion). The travel balance widened 10.8% to a surplus of MAD 74.62 billion ($7.46 billion).
Goods trade moved the other way. Imports grew 15.8%, or MAD 84.27 billion ($8.43 billion), to MAD 617.51 billion ($61.75 billion), outpacing an 8.7% rise in exports to MAD 334.89 billion ($33.49 billion). The widening gap pushed the trade deficit up 25.4% to MAD 282.62 billion ($28.26 billion), and the coverage rate fell 3.5 points to 54.2%.
Services partly offset that deficit. Exports of services advanced 12.6%, and imports rose 11.7%, lifting the services surplus 13.4% to MAD 118.26 billion ($11.83 billion). Across goods and services combined, the deficit came to MAD 133.47 billion ($13.35 billion), with a coverage rate of 79.6% against 83.2% a year earlier.
Foreign direct investment also strengthened. The net flow of FDI into Morocco jumped 65% to MAD 34.33 billion ($3.43 billion), as receipts gained 17% to MAD 47.32 billion ($4.73 billion) and expenditures fell 33.9% to MAD 12.98 billion ($1.30 billion). Moroccan direct investment abroad posted a net flow of MAD 6.67 billion ($667 million), up from MAD 2.36 billion ($236 million) a year earlier.
The remittance gains come against a regulatory concern raised in June. Speaking in Rabat on the International Day of Family Remittances, Bank Al-Maghrib Director General Abderrahim Bouazza pointed to the tightening of conditions in the European Union for intermediation carried out by subsidiaries of Moroccan banks as one of the main challenges facing the remittance ecosystem.
The matter, in his account, is being closely followed by Moroccan authorities alongside their European counterparts, with French authorities backing the continued authorization of relay operations on French soil through adjustments to the legal framework.
Bouazza also tied remittances to financial inclusion. Despite recent progress, he observed, significant gaps persist between rural and urban areas, between genders, and between younger and older users.
The mobilization of transfers toward entrepreneurship and the productive sector remains weak, particularly in rural areas, a weakness he attributed to administrative complexity, a difficult business environment, and a lack of incentives.
Consumption still absorbs most of the money. Citing the latest HCP survey, Bouazza placed 87% of these transfers in households’ current consumption. The National Financial Inclusion Strategy, run jointly by the Ministry of Economy and Finance and the central bank, aims to narrow those gaps and steer more of the inflows toward productive investment.
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