By Loubna Flah
By Loubna Flah
Morocco World News
Casablanca, December 9, 2012
The minister in charge of the budget, Mr. Al Azami al Idrissi asserted during a parliamentary session earlier this week that the liquidity shortage has not affected the financing conditions of the national economy.
The minister ascribed this relative stability to the effectiveness of the monetary policies undertaken earlier by Bank al Maghrib, Morocco’s central bank in order to curb the detrimental effects of liquidity strain.
The minister revealed that the interest rate has slightly increased during the last ten months. The price of interest rate stagnated in a level approximately close to the price of the principal interest rate 3,15 % instead of 3,29% recorded last year .
In an attempt to ease the liquidity strains felt by commercial banks and to prevent a systemic crisis, Morocco’s central bank had repeatedly pumped massive liquidity assets in the Moroccan banking system. It has also made a decision to maintain the price of interest rate around 3 %.
Mr. Al Azami Al Idrissi made it clear that the liquidity shortage that plagued Moroccan banks this year had started in 2007 as a result of the” high trade deficit enhanced by the repercussions of the global financial crisis.”
The minister outlined the measures undertaken by Bank al Maghrib in order to contain the liquidity crisis. Indeed Bank al Maghrib has followed an interventionist approach by increasing the rate of intervention that has reached 44,3 Billion dirhams ($ 5,15 billion) as opposed to 1,70 billion drihams ($ 1,79 million) recorded last year.
He added that the general treasury has undertaken a set of measures in order to alleviate the impact of liquidity strains including the issuance of sovereign bonds worth 1 billion Dollars.
The liquidity crisis was initially engendered by a massive withdrawal of assets from the business circle. The panic prevailed among clients when the General Directorate for Taxes launched a large scale seizure operation on business owners’ bank accounts without a prior notice.
