Rabat – The government council, chaired by Morocco’s head of government Saad Eddine El Othmani, is set to meet on Thursday, December 2, to discuss four draft decrees. One of the proposed decrees concerns the Consumer Price Index (IPC).
IPC is an indicator calculated by Morocco’s High Commission for Planning (HCP) to evaluate the prices of goods and services in the country, including medical care, food, and transportation.
The index is currently based on 12 different elements, including, but not limited to, the prices of food and drinks, clothes, accommodation, furniture, health, transportation, communication, entertainment, education, restaurants, and hotels.
The government council plans to discuss possible changes in order to make the index more accurately representative of Moroccans’ purchase power.
The most recent IPC, issued by HCP in November, recorded a decrease of 0.4% in comparison to the previous month, October. However, it has increased by the same value, 0.4%, compared to November 2018. According to the same index, Casablanca and Fez are the cities with the highest prices in Morocco.
The council will discuss three more project decrees during the meeting. The first project aims to fix the administrative delegation of tasks and the organization of the Ministry of Interior more widely. The second decree creates a special allowance for the civil servants who audit Morocco’s financial courts.
The final project proposes a system to ensure the repayment of deposits put down on real estate deals in the event of the sale’s non-completion. The discussion comes in response to the scandal of “Bab Darna.”
The heads of “Bab Darna,” a real estate company launched in 2013, are wanted for fraud and scam charges. The company marketed affordable housing projects, attracting hundreds of Moroccans who found out only recently that the promised projects are not real, after paying large deposits. Casablanca’s court estimates the company has stolen around MAD 200 million.
The government council plans to make law amendments that would prevent similar cases from happening again in the future.
