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Rabat – The World Bank has announced an expected economic growth of 4 percent for Morocco for 2017. This projection is good news when compared to the meager 1.6 percent recorded last year, primarily due to the struggling agricultural sector.
In its report entitled ‘Global Economic Prospects,’ released January 2017, the World Bank anticipates Moroccan economic growth to represent one of the highest rates in the Middle East and North Africa.
Another section of the report, titled ‘Weak Investment in Uncertain Times,’ points out that the sluggish 1.6 growth registered in 2016 was mainly due to “a drought-related contraction in the agricultural sector.” Falling prices of crude oil, however, helped oil-importing countries including Morocco to lower their economic deficit in the same year, softening the blow.
Morocco is one of the countries to show progress in fiscal deficit through “the elimination of subsidies on diesel and gasoline and greater control of the wage bill.”
The World Bank anticipates that oil-importing countries will experience “broad-based growth acceleration.” In the same regard, the output of the agricultural season in Morocco will support the projected growth for 2017.
As far as oil-exporting countries are concerned, Saudi Arabia will experience a modest increase of 1.6 percent while Iran will see a growth of 5.2 percent, decent but a little lower than projections from last June. Algeria, which currently suffers from a rise in inflation due to currency devaluation in 2015, is expected to experience a slight decrease in economic growth in 2017. The reason for the lackluster projection is thought to be the drop in public spending following the delay in “tax and subsidy” reform.
Edited by Connie Guindon
