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Join on Telegram Denver – The upcoming 2022 finance bill will allocate over $1.7 billion dollars to support food and gas prices in Morocco.
Head of Government Aziz Akhannouch gathered the Council of Ministers this Monday to examine the new national financial plan for the 2022 fiscal year. Among the changes made, ministers increased the number of subsidy funds for food and butane by 28%.
The primary subsidized food products are “sugar and soft wheat flour,” according to the Ministry of Economy and Finance.
Government officials expect the subsidized products will cost $1.56 billion dollars in government funds within the first nine months of implementation.
“Taking into account the expected food subsidy charge, the overall compensation charge would amount to nearly MAD 14.078 billion between January and September,” says the ministry report.
Ministry officials predicted the government would need to spend $1.099 billion dollars during this same period to subsidize butane gas consumption in the country. Officials relayed approximately 2.03 million tons of the gas would be consumed by September.
Sugar consumption in the country was predicted to reach 915,000 tons, increasing subsidy costs to $288.8 million dollars.
For wheat products, the ministry predicts subsidy costs to reach $161.6 million dollars. The import of soft wheat products is expected to cost the government $47.4 million in subsidies between February to May alone.
The increase in funds dedicated to food subsidies is part of a worldwide increase in the cost of basic commodities. Due to several factors including the pandemic, climate change, and pressure on global food supply chains, the cost of resources like cereals, vegetable oil, coal, and gas has reached a 10-year high, prompting concerns of food and energy security in several regions around the world.
