Morocco's trade gap widened to 116.8 billion Dirhams in May, the source pointed out in a release, noting that the coverage rate of imports by exports has reached 60.2%.

Exports amounted to 51.06 billion Dirhams (+40.7%), while imports rose by 39.2% to 82.55 billion Dirhams.

The increase in goods imports concerned almost all product groups. For its part, the energy bill has more than doubled to 54.64 billion Dirhams, due to the increase in supplies of gas-oil and fuel-oil (+MAD 14.02 bln), according to the same source.

Thus, the purchases of semi-finished consumer products increased by 53.9% while raw material purchases jumped by 76%.

Foodstuff imports posted a 31.8% increase, mainly due to the significant increase in purchases of barley (MAD 2.99 billion). 

As for exports, their increase concerned all sectors, mainly the sectors of phosphates and derivatives, automobile, agriculture and agribusiness.