In terms of travel, the balance continues to be in surplus. The surplus noted by the Foreign Exchange Office amounts to +34.55 billion dirhams compared to 27.27 billion dirhams a year earlier, an improvement of 26.7%.
External exchanges: Driven by the increase in MRE transfers and travel receipts, Morocco’s external indicators show a generally favorable development at the end of April 2026. This performance is nevertheless attenuated by the worsening of the trade deficit under the effect of a sustained increase in imports.
Fund transfers made by Moroccans living abroad on an upward trend. Revenues improved for the first four months of the year. They actually increased by 9.8% compared to the same period of the previous year, standing at nearly 40 billion dirhams at the end of April. Consolidated transfers of 3.55 billion dirhams year-on-year. This is what emerges from the main indicators of foreign trade made public by the Foreign Exchange Office. In terms of travel, the balance continues to be in surplus. The surplus noted by the Foreign Exchange Office amounts to +34.55 billion dirhams compared to 27.27 billion dirhams a year earlier, an improvement of 26.7%. This positive balance results in fact from a 21.2% increase in travel revenue. These stood at 44.39 billion dirhams compared to 36.61 billion dirhams during the same period of the previous year. Travel spending improved by 5.4% to reach 9.84 billion dirhams at the end of April compared to 9.34 billion dirhams a year earlier. As for trade in services, the balance surplus shows an increase of 16.4%, reaching 54.91 billion dirhams for the first four months, an additional 7.71 billion dirhams year-on-year.
This development is driven by an 11.4% improvement in imports and exports, up 13.9%. On the other hand, the trade deficit showed a peak of 18.4% at the end of April, climbing to -127.04 billion dirhams compared to 107.28 billion dirhams the previous year. This gap results from the pronounced increase in imports of goods. These improved by 12.7%, representing additional purchases of 33.3 billion dirhams. Exports increased by 8.7% over the year, gaining a value of 13.54 billion dirhams. In detail, Morocco imported goods of around 295.9 billion dirhams at the end of April compared to 262.59 billion dirhams a year earlier. In this sense, we note an increase of 13.01 billion dirhams in purchases of finished equipment products, 9.6 billion dirhams of finished consumer products, 6.3 billion dirhams of raw products and 1.51 billion dirhams of semi-finished products. The energy bill is also on the rise.
It appreciated by 4.48 billion dirhams for the first four months of the year. Referring to the Foreign Exchange Office, this development follows, essentially, the increase in supplies of gas oils and fuel oils of +23.5% or +4.14 billion dirhams, and those of petroleum oils and lubricants of +37.4% or +1.43 billion dirhams. At the same time, purchases of food products fell by 1.96 billion dirhams (-5.9%) following a drop of 1.49 billion dirhams in imports of raw or refined sugar and 884 million dirhams in those of live animals. At the same time, supplies of oilcake and wheat increased by 502 million dirhams and 150 million dirhams respectively. As for exports, they stood at 168.85 billion dirhams at the end of April, mainly driven by the good dynamics of three export sectors. Let us first mention the automobile sector whose shipments amounted to 58.28 billion dirhams, an additional 9.12 billion dirhams. Commenting on the resumption of exports in the sector, the Foreign Exchange Office notes the increase of 5.99 billion dirhams in sales of the construction segment and 3.05 billion dirhams in those of the cabling segment. The aeronautics sector saw its exports improve by 15.9% year-on-year, standing at around 11.03 billion dirhams compared to 9.52 billion dirhams at the end of April 2025.
This positive trend is explained by the increase of 1.28 billion dirhams in sales from the assembly segment and 227 million dirhams in exports from the EWIS segment. The agriculture and agri-food sector generated 36.84 billion dirhams in exports, up slightly compared to the value of the previous year. This development occurs, essentially, following the increase of 1.27 billion in exports from the food industry and 74 million dirhams from the tobacco industry. Exports of agriculture, forestry and hunting, for their part, fell by 1.06 million dirhams. Furthermore, exports of electronics and electricity fell by 3.5%, losing nearly 200 million dirhams of their value. The same is true for shipments of phosphates and derivatives, which fell by 1.5% in the first four months of the year. Textiles and leather fell by 6.7%, losing 995 million dirhams of their value compared to the same period of the previous year.
Regarding investments, FDI saw its net flow shrink by 10.1%, going from 12.96 billion dirhams in one year to 11.65 billion dirhams at the end of April 2026.
At the same time, the net flow of Moroccan direct investments abroad consolidated by 41.9%, climbing to 3.48 billion dirhams compared to 2.44 billion dirhams at the end of April 2025.
