I don’t have any half-dirham coins left. Take a chocolate, a piece of candy or a stick of gum.” That is what a tobacconist in Casablanca’s Roudani neighborhood tells us. “Sorry, but we are short of coins, including one-dirham coins. Management leaves us to deal with customers on our own,” admits a young employee at a recently opened convenience store on Rue d’Agadir.
“Count yourself lucky! In some supermarkets, they simply don’t give you your small change, as though that were perfectly normal,” says one mother.
The situation, however, is not the same everywhere, either in Casablanca or elsewhere in Morocco. “I have half-dirham coins to spare. Chehal bghiti? (How many do you want?)” says a resident of Boulevard Mohammed V, not without irony.
450 million “3achra deryal” in circulation
Asked by TelQuel, Bank Al-Maghrib acknowledges that the half-dirham coin is causing some difficulties. “Despite stock levels considered satisfactory, the information gathered and discussions held with stakeholders in the cash-handling sector indicate that there are difficulties regarding the availability of certain categories of Moroccan coins. These difficulties appear to stem largely from the slow pace at which the coins circulate, particularly between informal businesses and the formal channels of the economy,” the central bank told us.
According to the central bank, nearly 18 million half-dirham coins are put into circulation each year. At the end of May 2026, nearly 450 million of these coins were circulating in the economy, accounting for 13% of the total number of coins in circulation and 5% of their total value.
“Cash in circulation has risen exceptionally sharply in recent years, reaching 543 billion dirhams at the end of May, compared with no more than 250 billion dirhams at the end of 2019. Despite the strain this increase has placed on cash-handling infrastructure, Bank Al-Maghrib and the country’s banks have continued to meet market demand under optimal conditions,” the central bank explained.
An average annual increase of 3%
According to our source, the number of Moroccan coins in circulation has therefore grown at an average annual rate of 3% in recent years, reaching 3.4 billion coins at the end of May, with a total value of 4.7 billion dirhams.
“Considerable efforts have been made to meet market needs. Nearly 100 million new Moroccan coins were injected into the economy in each of the past two years, compared with around 90 million coins annually between 2021 and 2023 and 80 million coins annually before 2019,” Bank Al-Maghrib explained.
To put these figures into perspective, central banks commonly use the number of coins in circulation per capita as a benchmark. Based on the latest population figures published by the High Commission for Planning (HCP), this measure indicates that Morocco’s stock of coins in circulation amounts to the equivalent of 128 dirhams per citizen, or 175 dirhams per person aged 15 and over. These levels are comparable to those observed in several emerging economies.
Bank Al-Maghrib has set out a plan to improve the circulation of coins while continuing to increase the amount of coinage it puts into circulation.
Written in French by Mohammed Boudarham, edited in English by Eric Nielson
