Moroccan overseas remittances reach 9% of GDP

 
Government official expects rise in money sent my Moroccans overseas will continue in coming years.

 
RABAT - Money sent home by Moroccans overseas amounted to 40.7 billion dirhams (3.6 billion euros) last year, or roughly 9 percent of Morocco's gross domestic product, a senior government official said Monday.

"This amounts to more than a 8.9 percent increase compared to 2004 and we think this rise will continue in the coming years," the official said.

The lion's share, or 43 percent, were from France's one-million strong Moroccan community who repatriated 10.6 billion dirhams.

Roughly half that sum, or 5.14 billion dirhams, was sent home in 2005 by the 600,000 Moroccans living in Spain. Those in Italy sent a smaller sum.

Earlier this fall, Morocco's finance ministry announced tourism revenues had surpassed remittances for the first time as a share of the country's GDP.

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