Morocco’s Central Bank reveals that the country’s international reserves have gone up in recent weeks, suggesting resilience and sound structural reforms.
Rabat- Morocco’s net international reserves have gone up by 7.1% in recent weeks, Morocco’s Central Bank, Bank Al-Maghrib (BAM), has indicated in a recent statement, suggesting the country is doing well despite some persisting challenges, external shocks .
The figures point to an overall improvement in Morocco’s fiscal and monetary outlook compared to the same period last year, BAM’s statement emphasized.
The assessment mostly concerns the past weeks, with the Moroccan bank also pointing out that it injected 61.2 billion dirhams in the economy from December 12-18. Meanwhile, the Moroccan Dirham appreciated by 0.36% against the Dollar and depreciated by 0.11% against the Euro during the same period.
The country’s interbank rate, in the meantime, has reached 2.25%.
The news mostly provides a heartening reading of Morocco’s economic performance and is somewhat reflective of the Moroccan government’s predictions for the country’s growth rate and overall economic performance for 2020.
“This year has so far been marked by an improvement in the budget deficit, both in terms of rates and financial values,” the Moroccan government revealed in late July. “Economic growth prospects for 2020 indicate that there will be improvements.”
In recent years, Morocco has received praise for its “economic resilience” and “sound macroeconomic policies.”
Evaluating Morocco’s structural reforms in late 2017, the IMF, which considers Morocco a “good student” on fiscal reforms, applauded the North African kingdom for “improving its economic resilience, upgrade its fiscal and financial policy frameworks, and increase its economic diversification.”
Feeble employment rate, a relatively weak business environment, and a persisting degree of bad governance are usually cited as the areas in which the kingdom still needs to improve as it looks to capitalize on its successful structural reforms. Still, the overall perception is that, compared to other countries in the region, Morocco can take pride in its latest economic performances.
“External constraints remain strong, but internal public policy choices have played a major role” in terms of building resilience to external shocks, French economist Christian de Boissieu recently said of Morocco’s economy.