London, January 7, 2012 (MAP)
London, January 7, 2012 (MAP)
While Morocco’s economic growth eased in 2012, it is expected to post an accelerated growth in 2013, thanks to measures to improve the country’s fiscal health, the UK Think tank Oxford Business Group (OBG) writes on Friday.
Building on IMF conclusions, OBG says that a mix of short-term and long-term to improve the country’s fiscal health, alongside strong performance in select sub-sectors, have put the economy on track to see 5.5% growth in 2013.
It recalls that the Kingdom outstripped all other North African economies in 2011, notching up yearly growth of 4.9%.
However, faced with domestic and external challenges, the country’s economic growth eased to 2.9% in 2012, although a particularly strong uptick in construction and key industries such as manufacturing compensated for decreases in other sectors, including agriculture, it says.
the intelligence business group points out that Morocco is taking steps to rebuild its eroded fiscal and external buffers, led by a revision of costly public subsidies for food and energy products, which account for an estimated 15% of government spending, and a reform of its cash-strapped pension system.
While the fiscal reform will take time to put in place, it has already been given a vote of confidence by key international players, underwriting the IMF’s decision to award Morocco a $6.2bn precautionary liquidity line in June, OBG further says.
The Think tank notes that in another move aimed at securing adequate budgetary support, Morocco issued a $1bn, 10-year bond on December 5. The country’s first international dollar-denominated bond, rated BBB- by Standard & Poor’s (S&P), was heavily oversubscribed, prompting Morocco to sell an additional $500m, 30-year bond, which attracted an additional $2bn in offers.
Morocco also took strides forward in its labour-intensive and export-dependent industrial sector in 2012, with the strongest performances recorded in aeronautics and automobile manufacturing.
Aeronautic component exports grew 18% y-o-y to reach Dh4.64bn (€417.1m) by end-September, while automobile exports increased 7% to reach Dh18.3bn (€1.6bn), it points out.
