Official underlines economic improvement

Moroccan Head of Central Bank Al Sayed Abdel Latif Al Jawaheri said that inflation slowed sharply, moving from 1.9 percent in the first two months of 2017 to 0.2 percent on average over the next six months.

He added, in an interview with “Arabs Today”, that Inflation in 2017 is expected to reach 0.6 per cent before accelerating to 1.3 per cent in 2018. He added that core inflation, reflecting the basic price trend, is expected to rise from 0.8 per cent in 2016 to 1.4 per cent in 2017 and 1.6 per cent in 2018.

He added that The Moroccan economic growth is expected to jump to 4.3 percent in 2017 after a slow growth of 1.2 percent in 2016, the central bank said in a statement on Tuesday. He stressed that this positive performance is mainly due to better agricultural output.

Morocco produced 9.6 million tons of cereals in the 2016-2017 crop year, he said, compared with 3.35 million tons last year, said the Moroccan ministry of agriculture. According to the central bank's forecast, the economy growth will slow down to 3.1 percent in 2018.

Meanwhile, the budget deficit would stand at 3.2 percent of the GDP this year, down from 4.1 percent in 2016. The bank said it expected inflation to remain around 0.6 percent in 2017. The Moroccan government has vowed to achieve an average annual growth between 4.5 and 5.5 percent during 2016 to 2021.

He warned of the negative consequences that could arise in the case of continued waste of time and delay in the reform of the financial sector in Morocco, especially as the project is in the context of economic stability and not in a crisis situation, stressing that reform will protect the country from external shocks.