• Morocco’s budget deficit widens to $5.4B by September 2025
• Revenue rose 17.4%, but spending outpaced at 18.9% growth
• Financing needs nearly doubled amid rising debt and investment costs

Morocco’s budget deficit widened sharply to 50.52 billion dirhams ($5.4 billion) by the end of September 2025, from 26.64 billion dirhams a year earlier, according to the General Treasury’s monthly public finance bulletin published in October.

The Treasury said the shortfall includes a negative balance of 2.8 billion dirhams from Special Treasury Accounts and State Services Managed Autonomously, compared with a positive balance of 17.3 billion dirhams at the end of September 2024.

Total revenue rose 17.4% year-on-year to 310.7 billion dirhams, driven by stronger customs receipts, higher domestic consumption taxes on manufactured tobacco, and increased net revenue from domestic taxation, including VAT.

Expenditure climbed 18.9% to 280.2 billion dirhams, reflecting higher spending on goods and services, rising debt interest payments, and greater investment outlays. As a result, Morocco’s financing needs rose to 71.66 billion dirhams, up from 36 billion dirhams a year earlier.

After peaking at 7.1% of GDP in 2020 due to the pandemic, the deficit has been narrowing since 2021, reaching 4.3% of GDP in 2023, helped by measures to strengthen fiscal balance such as anti-fraud efforts and tax amnesties.

The High Commission for Planning (HCP) estimated the 2024 deficit at 3.8% of GDP and expects it to fall to 3.6% in 2025 and 3.4% in 2026. The agency said the declining deficit, combined with growth in nominal GDP, should reduce debt ratios, with total debt projected to ease to 79.2% of GDP in 2025 from 79.8% in 2024.

Lydie Mobio