The Competition Council has announced that it will analyze the evolution of the prices of 13 raw materials in Morocco to verify the existence of practices prohibited by economic operators. This was the subject of a note of reference to the Council in which it indicated that it had taken the initiative to issue an opinion on the significant increase in the prices of raw materials and raw materials on the world market and its repercussions on the course of competition in the national market.
The council selected 13 basic materials to analyze the evolution of their prices, including building materials (scrap metal, glass, aluminum and copper), energy materials (gasoline, gasoline, fuel oil and coal), and foodstuffs (wheat, nitrogen fertilizers, butter, lentils and powdered milk).
The Council seeks to verify whether the prices recorded on the national market have been affected by external factors linked to the prices of imported raw materials, or by illegal elements linked to prohibited practices such as cartels and the arbitrary exploitation of a dominant position, practices that are criminalized by Law No. 104.12.
The analysis to be carried out by the Competition Council will cover two distinct periods; The first covers four years from 2018 to 2021, and the second covers the first three months of the current year, which saw significant fluctuations in consumer selling prices on the national market.
The Council recalled that Morocco is no exception to the rise in commodity prices, as is the case in the world, because its markets are active in an environment characterized by the total liberalization of most materials and goods imported from abroad.
According to the data, Morocco imports around 90% of its energy needs and almost half of its grain needs, which makes its market affected by world market prices.
At Qatani, Morocco imports lentils in large quantities, representing regarding 60 percent of its needs, and 30 percent of its butter. In the iron and steel sector, local supplies cover around 30-40% of the sector’s needs, while 60-70% of the remaining supplies are imported.
The same institution said that the rise in commodity prices across the world, which started since the second quarter of 2020, was due to the large imbalance between supply and demand as a result of the Corona virus crisis and to the state of uncertainty surrounding the conditions of the global economic recovery, to which are now added the geopolitical tensions linked to the war. Russian Ukrainian.
Russia is the largest gas exporter and the second largest crude oil exporter in the world, and wheat exports from Russia and Ukraine accounted for around 35% of global exports for the year 2020.
The Council noted that the price levels of major global economic systems recorded a significant increase, with the Consumer Price Index in America registering a 7.9% increase between February 2021 and February 2022.
In the euro zone, the consumer selling price index increased by 5.9% due to the 32% rise in energy prices.
In Morocco, the Competition Council indicated that the High Commission for Planning recorded a rise in the price index of 3.6% last February, the highest level recorded for several years, while the rate fluctuated between 0.2 and 1.4%.
As part of the clarification of the objectives of taking the initiative for the preparation of an opinion, the Council noted that periods of crisis provide an environment conducive to the possibility of perpetrating anti-competitive practices in the main product markets . Some economic actors might resort to exploiting the situation and increasing their profit margins in order to double their profits.
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