HCP: Economic activity outside agriculture is holding up

HIBAPRESS-RABAT-HCP
At the level of the secondary sector, the increase in value added would have reached +6.3% in the first quarter of 2024, boosted by the knock-on effects of the technical rebound in the extractive industries on other branches.
In annual variation, mining added value would have increased by 11.2%, after -11.8% a year earlier. This dynamic would have been driven by a 28.3% expansion in phosphate production, driven by the strengthening of demand from local processing industries. The low level of fertilizer stocks in North American countries and the strength of demand from Brazil would have fueled the revival of international trade in fertilizers, favoring an increase in national shipments of raw phosphate of 54.7% in the first quarter 2024, annual variation.
The manufacturing industry, for its part, would have posted an increase of 6.8%, in annual variation, in the first quarter of 2024. This growth, attributable in part to a mechanical base effect, would have been, mainly, the result of sectors of chemistry, transport equipment, rubber and plastics.
On the other hand, the activity of the agri-food industry would have continued to decline, although at a less pronounced rate than the previous period (-2.2%). The textile industry would have maintained its downward trajectory for the third consecutive quarter, due to the weak dynamics of its sales.
Construction activity would also have returned to more robust growth in the first quarter of 2024, recording an increase of 3.7%, instead of a drop of 3.4% during the same period of the previous year. . This dynamic, driven mainly by public works, in particular the preparation programs for CAN 2025 and the 2030 World Cup, as well as by reconstruction and rehabilitation initiatives in areas affected by the EL Haouz earthquake, would have been corroborated by an increase in the use of construction materials, with an increase in cement sales of 7.5%. This revival of activity would, however, have remained fragile, given the continued slowdown in household demand.
In the tertiary branches, activity has returned since mid-2023 to its mode of moderate growth prior to 2020, after the vigorous recovery which had marked the last three years. Business services would have maintained momentum, in the wake of the recovery in industrial activities, but services linked to individuals and retail activity would have experienced moderate growth. Overall, the added value of the tertiary branches would have grown by 3.1% in the first quarter of 2024, in annual variation, instead of +5.4% a year earlier.