Rabat – Echoing previous forecasts, the World Bank is expecting a sharp annual drop in Morocco’s economic growth, which is likely to average 1.2% at the end of 2022.
After noting a strong 7.9% growth in 2021, one year after the onset of the COVID-19 crisis, Morocco’s economic growth is losing momentum as the lingering supply bottleneck and the Ukraine crisis continue to weigh down on the national economy.
In a recent publication titled “A New State of Mind: Greater Transparency and Accountability in the Middle East and North Africa,” the World Bank argues that Morocco’s economy will maintain slow growth rates throughout 2023, as growth is forecasted to average 4% at the end of that year.
The lingering supply crisis and rising energy prices triggered by the Ukraine war and West-backed sanctions on Russia are equally expected to exacerbate Morocco’s trade deficit –the difference between the monetary value of exports and imports, the report maintains.
After rising to 2.3% in 2021, Morocco’s trade deficit would edge even higher to 4.9% at the end 2022 and would slow down in 2023, averaging 4.2% of DGP, according to World Bank estimates.
As Morocco is a net oil importer, the rising prices of energy commodities are putting substantial pressure on the country’s foreign reserves given that the country relies on its foreign currency reserves to cover the difference in cost between the value of imports and exports.
The World Bank’s forecasts remain more optimistic than the previous one provided by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) indicating that Morocco’s economic growth could average 0.8% at the end of 2022.
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