The credits distributed to Moroccans, households and companies, amount to nearly 85% of the GDP! It is thus approximately 1000 billion DH of debts that Moroccans contracted with banks and finance companies. According to statistics from Bank Al-Maghrib, at the end of September 2021, outstanding bank loans stood at MAD 982.8 billion, an annual increase of 4%. In detail, on that date, loans to households recorded an annual increase of 4.6% to 363 billion dirhams, essentially reflecting a 6% increase in housing loans and a 1.3% increase in loans to the consumption. Crowdfunding for housing, notably in the form of real estate Murabaha, continued to grow and stood at MAD 15 billion, after MAD 9.8 billion a year earlier. In the third quarter, the banks declared a tightening of the granting criteria for both home loans and consumer loans. For demand, it would have stagnated, covering an increase for consumer loans and a decrease for those for housing.
Regarding businesses, bank credit to non-financial agents increased by 4.1% to MAD 848 billion, while that to financial agents increased by 3.4% to MAD 135 billion. In more detail, the 4.3% annual increase in loans to private non-financial companies (MAD 408 billion) covers an increase of 10.2% in liquidity facilities and decreases of 4.8% and 0.7% real estate and equipment loans respectively. By branch of activity, the quarterly data for September 2021 indicate an acceleration in the rate of growth from 1.1% to 1.5% of loans granted to the “trade, car repairs and household items” sector and a improvement of 4.9% against a decrease of 0.3% for those intended for “Transport and communications”. On the other hand, the rates of progression of aid to the “food and tobacco industries” and to the “textiles, clothing and leather industries” decelerated from 9% to 7.7% and from 13.9% to 9 , 9% respectively. As for loans to the “building and public works” sector, they fell by 4.5% after an increase of 4.6%.
As for loans granted by financial corporations other than banks to the non-financial sector, they increased by 1.8% in the third quarter after 0.6% a quarter earlier. This change covers in particular an attenuation of the drop in loans distributed by off-shore banks from 26.7% to 11.1% and a deceleration in the increase in those granted by finance companies from 3.7% to 2, 6%.
In addition, the Central Bank recalls in its economic survey that access to financing, in the third quarter of 2021, was considered normal by 89% of industrial companies, with a stagnant cost of credit. According to the results of the survey on the credit granting conditions available in the third quarter of 2021, banks would have kept unchanged the criteria for granting credit to businesses of all sizes and for all credit purposes, except loans for real estate development which were slightly tightened.
For demand, it would have recorded an increase for both large companies (GE) and small businesses. By object, it would have marked an increase for cash loans, a decrease for equipment loans and a stagnation for those in property development. In Q3-2021, the rates applied to new loans were up, from one quarter to another, by 13 basis points (bps) to 4.17%. By company size, they increased by 12 bps to 3.83% for large companies and by 15 bps to 4.98% for small businesses. It must be said that all the rates are down compared to the pre-pandemic period. Bank Al-Maghrib figures show that rates have generally experienced a downward trend compared to the same period in 2019. Thus, the lending rate was 4.98% in Q2 2019 against 4.32% this year. Accounts receivable and cash loans were 4.74% against 4% in the second quarter of 2021. Equipment loans also followed a downward trend, dropping from 5.17% to 4.10%. Mortgage rates, meanwhile, fell over the period from 4.82% to 4.52%. Consumer loans also fell from 6.71% to 6.64% over two rolling years.
Note that bad debts recorded an increase of 7.1% and their ratio to bank credit stood at 8.6% against 8.7% a month earlier. They increased by 7.2% for private non-financial companies and by 7% for households!
Lower household loan rates!
According to Bank Al-Maghrib, the rates applied to new loans to households stand out, in Q3-2021, down by 2 bps to 4.24% for housing loans and from 13 bps to 6.51% for those for consumption. As a reminder, in the second quarter of 2021, the majority of interest rates fell compared to the first quarter of the same year. Over the period, only the interest rates on consumer loans increased, from 6.5% to 6.64%. In fact, the lending rate fell from one quarter to another from 4.45% to 4.32%. Accounts receivable and cash loans fell from 4.08% to 4%. Equipment loans fell from 4.42% to 4.10% and mortgage loans saw their rate fall from 4.74% to 4.52%. In October 2021, the banks’ liquidity requirement eased to 73.8 billion dirhams on a weekly average, against 83 billion a month earlier. This change mainly reflects the increase in foreign exchange reserves, following in particular the currency purchase transactions carried out by the bank. In this context, the bank injected a total amount of 84.2 billion, including 32.8 billion through 7-day advances, 25.6 billion in the form of repo transactions and 25.8 billion through loans. guaranteed. Under these conditions, the interbank rate remained at 1.50% and the daily volume of trade on the interbank market fell from 4.1 billion in September to 2.9 billion.
Deposits exceed MAD 1,043 billion!
Deposits with banks recorded at the end of September an annual increase of 7.3% to stand at MAD 1,043.3 billion. Household deposits stood at MAD 775.7 billion, an annual increase of 4.7% with MAD 185.4 billion held by MRE. Deposits from private companies increased by 7.4% to reach MAD 154.9 billion at the end of September. The interest rates on 6-month and 12-month term deposits recorded increases of 10 basis points and 6 points at the end of September 2021 to stand at 2.35% and 2, respectively, 60%. For savings accounts, their minimum rate of return was set at 1.03% for the second half of 2021, a decline of 24 basis points compared to the previous half.
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