Energy bill, agriculture, tourism, industry…
The Treasury and External Finance Department (DTFE) has just unveiled its economic report detailing the main indicators of the national economy. Diagnostic.
Electricity: 3.2% improvement in local production
Local electricity production increased by 3.2% at the end of July 2022 against 6.9% a year earlier. In its economic note for the month of September, the Ministry of the Economy explains that this development covers, on the one hand, the 7.9% increases in the production of renewable energies included in the framework of law 13-09 and 26.5% of the production of the National Office of Electricity and Drinking Water (ONEE) and, on the other hand, a drop of 3.7% in concessional production. With regard to the balance of energy exchanges, it amounts to 406 Gwh against a negative balance of 153 Gwh in the same period last year due to the 117.3% increase in imports and the decline in -23.9% of exports. It also shows that net energy increased by 5.6% at the end of July 2022 against 6% on the same date last year. In addition, electricity consumption increased by 4.8% after 6.2% a year earlier. “This increase is due to the improvements in medium voltage electricity consumption (+6.9%), consumption of control rooms (+4.2%), very high voltage electricity consumption and high voltage (+4.4%) and residential consumption (+4%)”, indicates the same source.
Agriculture: Products that are a hit for export…
The national situation was also marked by an agricultural sector which faced a scarcity of rainfall. Consequently, cereal production for the 2021/2022 agricultural campaign is 34 Mqx, including 18.9 Mqx of soft wheat, 8.1 Mqx of durum wheat and 7 Mqx of barley, down -67% compared to the previous campaign which saw a production record of 103 Mqx. “Taking into account a sown area of 3.6 Mha, the average cereal yield comes out at 9.4 Qx/ha against 23.7 recorded during the previous campaign”, reports the same source. At the same time, in the non-cereal sector, citrus production increased by +14% for citrus fruits and by +21% for olives. In addition, during the 2021/22 export campaign from September 1, 2021 to August 31, 2022, the volume of citrus fruits recorded a growth of +40% compared to the same period of the previous campaign to reach 766,500 tons. As for market gardening products, exports recorded a growth of +13%, reaching a volume of 1.6 million tons. In this development, the volume of tomato shipments reached 670,000 tons against 521,800 tons during the previous campaign, representing a growth of +19%. Similarly, exports of red fruits recorded an increase of +18%, to reach 125,4000 tons. During the first eight months of 2022, olive oil exports reached 13,200 tons, double the volume of 2021 observed during the same period of the previous year, underlines the same source. With regard to fishing, it should be recalled that the volume of landings of coastal and artisanal fishing products recorded an increase of +19.8% during the first seven months of 2022. “This good performance comes from, on the one hand, increases in catches of pelagic fish (+25.9%) and crustaceans and shellfish (+17.1%) and, on the other hand, decreases in seaweed (-52.8% ) and cephalopods (-6.7%). Similarly, the valuation of catches improved by +7%, driven mainly by increases in the values of crustaceans and shellfish (+32.9%), pelagic fish (+25.2%) and white fish ( +7.1%)”, specifies the DTFE.
The automotive industry carbides
The manufacturing industries production index shows growth in the green (+1.8% in the second quarter of 2022 against +1.9% on the same date in 2021). According to the DTEF, this improvement is mainly driven by “printing and the reproduction of records” (+25%), “the manufacture of electrical equipment” (+22.2%), “metallurgy” (+18 .5%), “automotive industry” (+16.8%), “textile manufacturing” (+9.7%) and “food industries” (+8.3%). In addition, counter-performances are at the level of “the manufacture of other non-metallic mineral products” (-7.2%), “the chemical industry” (-7.1%), “the manufacture of computer, electronic and optical products” (-6.8%) and “manufacture of machinery and equipment” (-5.1%). On average for the first seven months of 2022, the industrial production capacity utilization rate (TUC) was marked by a decline of -0.6 points to stand at 71.7%. “In this evolution, the TUC of the agrifood industries fell by -4.3 points and that of the chemical and parachemical industries fell by -0.6 point. On the other hand, increases were recorded at the level of the TUC of the “mechanical and metallurgical industries” (+3.1 points), the “electrical and electronic industries” (+6.9 points) and the “textile and leather industries” (+6.9 points)”, underlines the said note.
The tourism and aviation sectors are picking up
Tourism and air travel are making a strong comeback with good performance since the reopening of borders in February 2022. For the tourism sector, this development is also linked to the strengthening of air capacity, the abolition of the PCR test for entry into Moroccan territory, the Marhaba 2022 operation and the various measures undertaken by the government in favor of the attractiveness of the “Morocco” destination. “Arrivals at border posts peaked at 3.2 million tourists during the months of June and July, an exceptional performance having made it possible to recover 100% of arrivals for the same period of 2019”, notes the same source adding that since the beginning of the year, this number has increased by +199% to 5.4 million, following a +143% increase in arrivals from MREs and +339% in foreign tourists.
On the other hand, if we compare to the same period of the year in 2019, the number of arrivals remains down -27.9%, resulting from a decline of -44% for foreign tourists and – 8.8% for MREs. Regarding overnight stays in classified establishments, they increased by +129% at the end of June 2022, reaching 6.2 million, but are still down by -45.7% compared to the same period in 2019. note that in terms of air traffic, national airports welcomed 9.8 million passengers through 89,648 air flights at the end of July 2022, i.e. a recovery rate of 70% for passengers and 75% for airport movements. The month of July alone has 2.4 million passengers, the same level recorded in the same month of 2019.
