The leading indicators spelled out in this chapter are taken from the quarterly production investigation carried out by The Statistics Directorate in the fields of processing industry, energy and mining in addition to the annual investigation on the processing industry carried out by the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Handicraft.Moreover, other industrial statistics relating to the activities of flour mills, sugar refineries, cement factories, co-operatives and assembly companies along with the production of milk, oils, tires and handicraft products are also published in this chapter.

Indexes of industry, energy and mining production.

a-       History : 

Production indexes are among the leading indicators which allow to follow the evolution of the industrial activity. Like many other countries, Morocco has been elaborating such indexes since the 1950s. The first indexes carried out in Morocco go back to 1952. However, the fast-paced evolution of the country’s industrial structure, the politco-economic changes which took place between1952 and 1958 in addition to a detailed investigation of the branches of activity in 1958 which led, in 1961, to the replacement of the base year from 1952 to 1958. 

After 1958, the structural changes that occurred during the1960s and the 1969 structure investigation led to the elaboration of new indexes with 1969 as a base year which was replaced by 1978.

 In 1983, another reform of this index was undertaken on the basis of the results of the investigation on the processing industry carried out by the Ministry for Industry, Trade and handicraft and brought about the replacement of the 1978 base year by 1982.

In 1988, another reform was carried out leading to the replacement of the1982 base year by 1987.

 In 1994, the Statistics Directory worked out a new index having for base the year 1992.