HCP: COVID, Inflation Hit Morocco’s Bottom 20% Hardest

Rabat – The COVID-19 pandemic and inflation took a toll on the country’s least affluent 20% of households, pushing their living standards by nearly 5% between 2019 and 2022, according to a recent report by Morocco’s High Commission for Planning (HCP).

The report revealed widening disparities between urban and rural areas, reflecting the disproportionate hardships the country’s most vulnerable populations have to face.

From 2019 to 2022, Morocco witnessed a notable deterioration in living standards, reversing the positive trends observed from 2014 to 2019.

Between 2014 and 2019, there was a notable improvement in the standard of living across all social categories. The wealthiest 20% saw an annual increase of 2.8%, while the least affluent 20% experienced a 3.9% improvement.

However, from 2019 to 2022, these trends reversed dramatically. The wealthiest 20% experienced a 1.7% drop annually, while the least affluent 20% saw a significant 4.6% annual decline.

The onset of the pandemic coupled with economic inflation worsened social inequalities, hitting the least affluent segments of society the hardest.

According to the HCP findings, the standard of living for the wealthiest 20% of Moroccans saw declines, but these were less severe compared to the bottom 20%.

Urban areas generally experienced milder declines compared to rural areas, where economic hardships were exacerbated by factors like persistent droughts.

The report further details how expenditures are increasingly concentrated among the wealthiest half of the population, perpetuating the economic divide.

In 2022, the wealthiest 20% accounted for a significant share of total household consumption expenditures, while the bottom 20% faced increasing financial constraints.

In 2022, the wealthy accounted for 48.1% of total household consumption, compared to 6.7% for the bottom 20%.

In terms of regional disparities, the report identifies significant variations in living standards across different parts of Morocco.

Certain regions, such as Casablanca-Settat and Rabat-Sale-Kenitra, boast significantly higher average living standards than the national average, while rural regions struggle with lower standards of living and limited economic opportunities.

The HCP report also points out that inequalities, measured by the Gini index, have widened in recent years. The index increased from 38% in 2019 to 40% in 2022, indicating a rise in income disparities across the country.