Rabat – The Moroccan government’s spokesperson Mustapha Baitas has said that Morocco is ready to take new measures to tackle the soaring prices the country has witnessed over the past months.
“The government is ready to deal with the soaring prices. As announced last week, a meeting was organized at the Ministry of Interior in the presence of the various departments concerned. New meetings are scheduled tomorrow,” Baitas stated in a press conference on Thursday.
He emphasized the government’s commitment to maintaining food prices at reasonable levels, highlighting the government’s readiness to take new measures if necessary.
According to Baitas, the government’s intervention will not be limited to market control only. The “price control efforts are visible with concrete indicators, but that’s not all,” he further explained. “The government is also involved in increasing production and supporting producers to supply the market, especially for foods that are in high demand during the month of Ramadan.”
As the government has made such pledges before, especially ahead of Ramadan when it promised to lower prices in support of, and in response to the cries for help of, low-income Moroccan households, the prevailing sentiment among Moroccans appears to be distrust and insensitivity to the government’s “fake” promises.
This has been particularly the case over the past several days, with Moroccans’ disillusionment with the government’s promises reaching a new high as prices of basic or essential food items remain prohibitively high two weeks into the holy month of Ramadan.
Read also: Despite Government Promises, Soaring Prices Continue to Frustrate Moroccans
In fact, contrary to the government’s promises, prices have worsened during Ramadan — the price of green pepper has gone from MAD 6 to MAD 20, while a kilogram of potatoes is sold at MAD 18-20, and onions now cost MAD 14 per kilogram.
Some Moroccan parsley vendors have expressed their dissatisfaction with what appears to be a deepening, increasingly alarming cost of living crisis.
“Vegetables are unbelievably expensive. Anything you think of buying happens to be surprisingly expensive, let alone the rent, medicines, and other expenses. I earn MAD 22 daily. I’m fed up with this,” one vendor desperately told a Moroccan channel.
Another vendor, mother Touria, described her day to the same channel as such: “Only God knows how I spend my day. I have a lot of problems; I’m sick and I have medicines to buy. I don’t earn enough income to satisfy my needs.”
