Moroccan expats' remittances greatly contribute to Morocco national economy

[MRE]

The Oxford Business Group (OBG) stressed, the important contribution of remittances of Moroccan expatriates to the economic activity in the kingdom, highlighting the important measures taken by the kingdom to draw as much benefits as possible from these remittances.

"Expatriate remittances to Morocco increased again in the first six months of this year, bolstering incomes in the kingdom and bringing welcome direct investment to a range of sectors," the OBG said.

These remittances totaled $ 3.5 bln in the period under review, up 5% on the same period last year, the group added, quoting Morocco's exchange rate monitoring body, the Office des Changes.

The source noted that Morocco receives more remittances than any other country in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region after Egypt, recalling that, last year, the country drew in $ 5.7bln in remittances, which have averaged $ 2.6bn annually since 2003, according to the World Bank.

Over the past 15 years, the number of Moroccan residents abroad (French acronym MREs) has nearly tripled, standing at some $ 3.3mln, the group said, adding that while recent years have seen a geographical broadening of the Moroccan diaspora, they mostly (80%) live in the European Union, with an estimated 1.6m in France and 700,000 in Spain, the two biggest sources of remittances.

Quoting the Conseil Déontologique des Valeurs Mobilières (CDVM) (the country's capital market authority), the OBG pointed out that Moroccan expatriates make up 58% of overseas investors in the Casablanca Stock Exchange (CSE). Meanwhile, Morocco's Organismes de placement collectif en valeurs mobilières (OPCVMs), or mutual funds, drew in $1.68bln from MREs in 2007 - representing 27.8% of total investments.

Expatriates also play an active part in the real estate and tourism sectors; the former by direct investments in property in the country and the latter from both investments and income from those returning to take holidays in their homeland, the group said, adding that broadly speaking, remittances continue to play their traditional role of supplementing the income of expatriates' families in Morocco, and boosting foreign currency earnings.

Quoting the Moroccan Centre for Economics, the group said fund transfers made by Moroccan expatriates are a major consideration for the Moroccan economy, not just as a way of supporting household revenues, but also, and more importantly, as a source of extra savings and an essential source of foreign currency.

It stressed that such is the importance of remittances to the kingdom that the government is encouraging expatriates to invest more in the country. For example, in August, Morocco signed up to an accord to set up electronic money transfers though technology developed by the Universal Postal Union (UPU), the UN's postal agency.

Other signatories included Jordan and Tunisia, which also draw in large amounts of remittances, and Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, to which increasing numbers of Moroccans have emigrated.