Several financial institutions, local and international, have noticed the increase in these transfers during the last two years in particular, which prompted the director of the Central Bank, earlier, to question the generosity of Moroccan expatriates.
Remittance growth forecast
In a new report, the World Bank expects remittances from Moroccans living abroad to jump to 90 billion dirhams by the end of the current year.
These expectations are based on the numbers recorded by these transfers from month to month, from November 2020 until now, recording a growth between 43 and 47 percent.
The Exchange Office (official affiliated to the Ministry of Finance) stated that the remittances of Moroccans residing abroad amounted to about 79.66 billion dirhams (about 7.9 billion dollars) until the end of October, compared to 55.59 billion dirhams (about 5.5 billion dollars) in the same period last year.
The office also recorded, in its monthly indicators of foreign trade bulletin for the month of October, that these remittances rose by 43.3 percent, equivalent to 24.07 billion dirhams.
encouraging numbers
In his reading of these expectations regarding the remittances of expatriates to Morocco, the Moroccan economic analyst residing in France, Kamal El-Zein, believes that “these numbers are very important, especially if compared to the remittances of other expatriates belonging to the North African region and the Middle East, or the remittances of expatriates of Latin American origins.”
And Kamal El-Zein explained, in his speech to “Sky News Arabia”, that the matter is mainly due to the solidarity of the Moroccan expatriates or “the community residing abroad with their families and families in order to confront the Corona pandemic and its social and economic effects, especially with what the world knew of inflation, which affected the prices in the Kingdom.
According to the researcher, the continuation of these transfers is also due to “the resilience of purchasing power in the diaspora, because the social welfare measures in European countries have greatly contributed to the expatriates facing the effects of Corona, which spared them the damage to their purchasing power.”
Kamal El-Zein pointed out, “The factor of remote work, as many expatriates preferred to spend this period in Morocco and work from the mother country, so all these financial transfers were needed.”
traditional and emotional behavior
These transfers shocked the officials of the financial institutions in Morocco, which prompted the Wali of Bank Al-Maghrib (the director of the Central Bank) to carry out a study on the phenomenon.
“Regardless of the rational financial and economic calculations, this act can be interpreted as a traditional and emotional act,” says sociologist Hassan Asheraw.
In an interview with “Sky News Arabia”, Ashrafou explained that on the traditional level, “remittances have been historically established, and have been linked to the reasons for the migration of Moroccan workers in the last century to European countries in particular to work in order to support their families and families residing in Morocco, so this act has continued with the generations that I grew up there, and it is repeatedly triggered by the influence of certain circumstances, including the Corona pandemic.”
As for the emotional level, this behavior is related to the family institution, which intervenes to instill its values and standards in its children according to an emotional reference. “Therefore, Moroccan families transferred the habit of solidarity to their children with ease, and made their home economy based on this act of solidarity,” according to the researcher.
The sociologist believes that “these transfers mostly go in three directions: either consumption related to the daily needs of families, urgent transfers linked to solving specific crises, or investment transfers.”
recovery
Professor of economics at the University of Abd al-Malik al-Saadi in Tangiers, Abd al-Rahman al-Siddiqi, says that investment is one of the areas that explain the rise in remittances from Moroccans abroad to the Kingdom, especially since “we know very well that the Moroccans of the world have become many of them forming middle classes and investing in the country of residence, not as was the case with The first and second generation.
Al-Siddiqi added, in a statement to “Sky News Arabia”, that many Moroccan expatriates “are now transferring money to the country in order to invest in real estate and production.”
The professor of economics believes that the Moroccan economy will benefit from these remittances, whether they are for consumption or investment. In both cases, there is a rise in public demand, which in turn raises the supply and creates jobs.
The researcher added, “Remittances in hard currency increase the country’s reserves of currencies that secure its purchases from abroad. We know the pressure of the energy, health, supply and investment bills that Morocco needs at this stage,” the same source records.
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