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Rabat – Private sector growth in Morocco will lead the country to outperform its neighbors in the Middle East and North Africa in the coming quarters, according to a new study by BMI Research.
The news comes just as the kingdom’s economy recovers from a year of poor agricultural harvests, which caused growth to halve compared to forecasts made by major credit rating agencies, including Fitch Ratings – owned by the same holding company as BMI.
Large foreign direct investments (FDI), especially in the Tangier port area, as well as increase in remittances from abroad will support the kingdom’s economic rise in 2017, the report predicts.
As a result, actual GDP growth will rise from 0.9 percent in 2016 – caused by harvests damaged from a season of virtually absent rainfall – to 4.3 percent in 2017.
Rainfall in Morocco has been strong so far, as the 2017 season approaches. Barring sudden climactic changes, cereal production should jump by 12 percent this year, as anticipated by the nation’s Finance Ministry.
This August’s renewal of an aged Investment Charter will allow the kingdom to establish a free economic zone in each region, allowing development to spread evenly across the nation.
The report also acknowledged King Mohammed VI’s efforts in South-South cooperation as the monarch tours the African continent with Moroccan businessmen at his side, confirming private-private and private-public partnerships.
Over the weekend, the king confirmed a project linking Nigerian oil resources to Morocco during a visit to Lagos as part of efforts to bolster support for the kingdom’s return to the African Union.
