Morocco’s trade deficit fell 24 per cent to 77 billion dirhams (about $7.87 billion) in the first half of 2015, the foreign exchange regulator said on Wednesday.

The country’s regulator said in Rabat that lower energy import prices due to drop in oil prices was responsible for the fall.

The trade gap was down from 101.36 billion dirhams at the end of June 2014, as energy imports fell by 32 per cent from a year earlier to 34.70 billion dirhams.

Wheat import prices fell 30 per cent as the local harvest hit a record high this year.

Total exports rose 6.4 per cent from a year earlier to 110.43 billion dirhams.

Tourism receipts dropped 6.6 per cent, while remittances from the 4.5 million Moroccans living abroad rose five per cent.
Foreign direct investment jumped 20 per cent to 16.9 billion dirhams.

A dollar exchanges for 9.7806 Moroccan dirham as at Wednesday