(MENAFN- Morocco World News) Rabat- According to the monthly external trade indicators for March 2018, issued by the Moroccan Foreign Exchange Office of External Trading, Morocco's trade deficit increased by 10.6 percent, a rise of MAD 48.70 billion in March 2018, compared to MAD 44.02 billion registered during the same period of the previous year.

The Foreign Exchange Office numbers showed that Morocco's imports reached MAD 117.14 billion at the end of March 2018, against MAD 108.21 billion in March 2017, marking an increase of 8.2 percent, which they largely attributed to the increase in purchases of capital goods (+ 12.4%), finished consumer products (+ 7.8%) and food products (+ 14.3%), especially wheat (+ 29.2%).

Meanwhile, exports rose by 6.6 percent, MAD 68.45 billion instead of MAD 64.19 billion one year earlier, which was mainly due to the increase in sales in all other sectors, especially in the automotive sector (+ 16.5%), agriculture and agri-food (+ 3%), and aeronautics (+ 18.8%), as well as Textile and Leather (+ 2.4%), the same source adds.

Thus, the coverage rate of imports by the exports, stood at 58.4 percent in March 2018, against 59.3 percent one year earlier.

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