Positive economic growth in Morocco contrasts with UK forecasts

In contrast to the UK where yesterday the Chancellor was gloomily predicting a contraction in the UK economy, Morocco’s 2009 economic growth should stand at 5.2%, said the Centre Marocain de Conjoncture (CMC)* in its latest publication dedicated to the financial turmoil. Analysing the Moroccan economic situation, the Centre underlined, however, that if the crisis deteriorates, this year’s growth would not exceed 4.8%, to fall to 4% in 2010.  The French-language publication also stressed that Morocco’s financial sector has not been directly affected by this crisis.

“At the beginning of the crisis many questions concerning the Moroccan financial sector were raised, but objective data released later showed that the national financial system will not be affected, directly, by the crisis,” it pointed out.

As to the real estate sector, the CMC’s stressed that this sector operates in a context marked by a clear deceleration, growing only by 9.4% in the last quarter of 2008.

The CMC also reported that tourism receipts fell by 3.5% but there was an increase in terms of visits, suggesting that visitors are being more careful with their money in the present climate.

Overall, in the context of the global economic turmoil, the signals from Morocco suggest that whilst it will inevitably be affected by the global economic problems (in terms of reduced tourist spending and remittances from Moroccan ex-pats) the basic health of the economy is extremely robust and this situation places Morocco in a great situation to exploit the economic upturn.