2023-07-29 18:31:00
Saturday, July 29, 2023 at 7:31 PM
Tetouan – His Majesty King Mohammed VI, may God assist him, accompanied by HRH Crown Prince Moulay El Hassan and HRH Prince Moulay Rachid, received, Saturday at the Royal Palace in Tetouan, Mr. Abdellatif Jouahri, Wali of Bank Al-Maghrib, who presented to the Sovereign the Central Bank’s annual report on the economic, monetary and financial situation for the 2022 financial year.
In his address to His Majesty the King, Mr. Jouahri indicated that the national economy, suffering from a difficult global context and a particularly severe drought, recorded growth of 1.3% in 2022, following 8% in 2021.
He also specified that despite this unfavorable economic situation and the effort made by the State to mitigate the impact of the rise in prices on households and businesses, the situation of public finances continued to recover, the budget deficit having returned to 5.2% of GDP.
In terms of foreign trade, the Wali of Bank Al-Maghrib stressed that the momentum observed in 2021 continued, driven by a remarkable performance of Morocco’s global businesses and the phosphate sector. Travel receipts reached a record level and the exceptional flow of transfers from Moroccans living abroad was maintained. These developments made it possible to contain the current account deficit to 3.5% of GDP, and the official reserve assets of Bank Al-Maghrib were strengthened to the equivalent of 5.5 months of imports.
And to add that like the majority of countries in the world, Morocco was not spared by the sharp rise in inflationary pressures that marked the year. Indeed, following an average rate not exceeding 1.5% over the past 20 years, inflation stood at 6.6% in 2022, its highest since 1992. Faced with such a situation, Bank Al-Maghrib tightened its monetary policy to promote the return of inflation to levels in line with the objective of price stability. It thus raised its key rate to stand at 2.5% at the end of the year. At the same time, it took care to ensure adequate financing of the economy and continued to meet all the liquidity requests expressed by the banks. It also continued to implement its programs dedicated to VSMEs.
Moreover, the profound changes that the world landscape is experiencing with geopolitical fragmentation, the rise of economic sovereignty, the recurrence of extreme climatic phenomena and the accentuation of water stress presage the major challenges that Morocco will face in the years to come. Faced with these developments, Mr. Jouahri believes that it is necessary to enhance the adaptability and agility of public policy and strengthen the resilience of the national economy.
To this end, he stresses that the development of human capital should remain the absolute priority. In this regard, he specified that two decisive projects give hope for a qualitative leap in this direction. The first is the generalization of social protection initiated by HM the King in 2021, while the second is the reform of the education system for which significant efforts have been made for many years.
On the economic level, the overhaul of the public sector to which the Sovereign called in 2020 should make it possible to correct the structural dysfunctions of public establishments. At the same time, the strong mobilization for the revitalization of private investment following the recent speech of HM the King gives hope for a new impetus for the benefit of growth and employment.
Emphasis was also placed on the importance of the rationalization of public resources, which is becoming a vital imperative and requires the acceleration of numerous projects which would make it possible to free up the necessary margins for the strengthening of social safety nets. Also, it is more and more urgent to complete the reform of the compensation system started in 2013 and that of pensions, estimated the Wali of Bank Al-Maghrib.
In addition, the succession of exogenous shocks since 2020 has highlighted the fragility of the economic fabric and the vulnerability of certain sections of the population. At the same time, it revealed the resilience developed by Morocco thanks to the strategy of diversifying its economy and the reforms undertaken over the past two decades, he noted.
In this sense, at the international level, under the leadership of His Majesty the King, Morocco has established itself as a credible partner and an island of peace and stability, recalled the Wali of Bank Al-Maghrib, noting that the spin-offs are significant with in particular the exit from the gray lists of the FATF and the European Union, the granting by the IMF of the Flexible Line of Credit and the hosting of the next Annual Meetings of the IMF and the World Bank in Marrakech.
Mr. Abdellatif Jouahri, on this occasion, handed over to HM King Mohammed VI, may God assist him, the annual report of the Central Bank on the economic, monetary and financial situation for the financial year 2022.
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