RABAT, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Morocco's spending on cooking gas and sugar subsidies has exceeded 1 billion U.S. dollars since the beginning of 2017, showed statistics released on Tuesday.
During the first eight months of 2017, spending on cooking gas increased by 70 percent year-on-year to 720 million dollars, while spending on sugar subsidies slightly increased to 295 million dollars, according to data from the government's subsidy fund Caisse de Compensation.
The increase in spending on gas and sugar was mainly due to a rise both in cooking gas and sugar imports and domestic consumption.
Caisse de Compensation expects the spending on cooking gas and sugar subsidies to reach 1.33 billion U.S. dollars this year, a 30-percent increase from 2016.
In 2013, Morocco started cutting subsidies in what is believed to be one of the most successful subsidy reforms in the Middle East and North Africa.
By the end of 2016, the government had eliminated subsidies on gasoline, diesel and industrial fuel, and reduced its budget deficit to 3.5 percent of GDP from 5.6 percent in 2011.
