Morocco Sees 11.7% Drop in New Business Registrations Amid Pandemic
In Morocco, during the year 2020, only 83,806 companies were created, both individuals and legal entities, a decrease of 11.7% compared to 2019. This decline is particularly the result of the impacts of the health crisis.
After the restrictive measures related to the pandemic, the number of business creations was 54,691 for legal entities and 29,115 for individuals, for a total of 697,400 companies, of which 32.51% for the commercial sector, 24.37% for Construction and public works and real estate activities and 17.07% for various services, reports Hespress. As for individual companies, the number of which is 1,179,576 during the first fiscal year, according to the breakdown by sector, the commercial sector reached a rate of 57.31%, the industrial sector 10.43%, and the various services sector 7.55%, according to the Moroccan Office of Industrial and Commercial Property (OMPIC).
Although the creation of legal entities increased by 7.5% compared to 2019, the creation of individual companies fell by 34%. In addition, the health crisis has impacted the regions in different ways. The Casablanca-Settat and Rabat-Salé-Kenitra regions only experienced a 2% (Legal) and 2.8% (Physical) drop in 2020, with 276,175 legal entities and 279,901 individual companies created. As for Tanger-Tétouan-Al Hoceima, the decline is much more significant, 36.5%, with 10,773 companies created in 2020. In the Oriental region, the number of business creations decreased by 31% with 5,504 creations, according to the OMPIC barometer.
Moreover, the recovery from September onwards made it possible to limit the damage and close the 2020 fiscal year with a 12% decline. This performance in the last quarter also helped stimulate business creation and give hope for a gradual return to the pre-Covid-19 economic situation and suggests that people suffering from job loss could find a salvage activity.
