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Morocco's trade deficit exceeded 127.04 billion dirhams during the first four months of 2026, up 18.4% compared with the same period a year earlier, according to the Foreign Exchange Office.
The widening deficit was driven by a stronger increase in imports of goods (+12.7% to 295.9 billion dirhams) than in exports (+8.7% to 168.86 billion dirhams), the Office said in its latest monthly foreign trade indicators bulletin. As a result, the coverage rate fell by 2 percentage points to 57.1%.
The rise in imports was mainly due to higher purchases of raw materials (+48.8% to 19.23 billion dirhams), finished equipment goods (+21.8% to 72.6 billion dirhams), finished consumer goods (+15.2% to 72.97 billion dirhams) and semi-finished products (+2.7% to 56.92 billion dirhams). Food imports, meanwhile, declined by 5.9% to 31.51 billion dirhams.
On the export side, growth was largely driven by stronger sales in the automotive sector (+18.6% to 58.28 billion dirhams) and aeronautics (+15.9% to 11.03 billion dirhams).
By contrast, exports from the textile and leather, electronics and electrical, and phosphates and derivatives sectors fell by 6.7%, 3.5% and 1.5%, respectively. Reversing its previous trend, the agriculture and agri-food sector posted a slight increase of 0.8%.
The Foreign Exchange Office also reported a 16.4% increase in the services balance surplus, which reached 54.91 billion dirhams, reflecting simultaneous growth in both service imports (+11.4% to 51.18 billion dirhams) and service exports (+13.9% to 106.09 billion dirhams).
