Morocco's domestic demand recovers by 8% in 2023

After falling by 1.6% a year earlier, domestic demand in Morocco managed to recover by the end of 2023, growing by 8.1%, according to data from the High Commission for Planning (HCP) collected by Morocco World News.  

Domestic demand represents the sum of spending by households, investors and the government. Strong domestic demand is critical to national economic growth, as it boosts business income, employment, investment and government revenues. 

In this regard, the HCP report indicates that the positive momentum of domestic demand contributed 9.4 points to the Kingdom's national economic growth. As a result, gross investment (spending by businesses, governments and households on capital goods) increased by 19.6% by the end of 2023, compared with a fall of 4.1% a year earlier, contributing 6.6 points to economic growth.

On the other hand, household consumption expenditure increased by 3.0% by the end of 2023, compared with a decline of 1.6% a year earlier. The increase in household consumption reflected positively on economic growth, contributing 1.9 points. 

Similarly, general government spending increased by 4.6%, up from 2.6% a year earlier, contributing 0.9 points to economic growth. 

The report argues that rising domestic demand drove the 4.1% growth in Gross Domestic Production (GDP) at the end of 2023 after a meagre 0.7% a year earlier. 

On the price front, the report notes that consolidated GDP growth has pushed down prices in the final quarter of 2023. 

The Kingdom's economy grew by 6.7% in the last quarter of 2023, compared with 4.3% a year earlier, leading to a slowdown in price growth. Inflation, meanwhile, reached 2.6% in the fourth quarter, down from 3% in the same period of 2022.