RABAT, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) – The High Commission for Planning (HCP), Morocco’s national statistics office, reported on Thursday that the country’s unemployment rate increased to 12.4 percent in the second quarter of 2023, compared to 11.2 percent in the same period last year.
The HCP press release revealed that the number of unemployed individuals reached 1,543,000 in the second quarter of 2023, up from 1,387,000 in the second quarter of 2022.
The report also highlighted the rise in unemployment rates in both rural and urban areas. In rural regions, the unemployment rate climbed from 4.2 percent in the second quarter of 2022 to 5.7 percent in the second quarter of 2023. Similarly, in urban areas, the unemployment rate rose from 15.5 percent to 16.3 percent.
In addition to the unemployment situation, Morocco’s foreign exchange regulator announced that the country’s trade deficit expanded by 61.6 percent year-on-year in the first half of 2023, reaching 14 billion U.S. dollars. This was primarily attributed to increased imports of energy and wheat.
Credit: The Star : News Feed
