IMF Forecasts 4.5% Growth of Moroccan Economy in 2021

The Moroccan economy is expected to grow by 4.5% in 2021, according to new projections by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

In its latest semi-annual World Economic Outlook report released Tuesday, the IMF expects growth of 3.9% for 2022.

This forecast of recovery in 2021 remains lower than the 5.2% announced by minister of Economy, Finance and Administration Reform during the last Economic Watch Committee of April 2, 2021, and the 5.3% announced by the Governor of Bank Al-Maghrib during the last council of this institution on March 23, 2021. The latter takes into account in particular a better than expected agricultural season and the favorable progress of the vaccination campaign against the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Bretton Woods institution stresses, on the other hand, that unemployment should be 10.5% in 2021, down from 11.9% in 2020, against 9.7% in 2022.

As for inflation, it has been revised upwards for 2020 to 0.6%, compared with 0.2% in the last version of the report published in October. For 2021, it should be 0.8% before rising to 1.2% in 2022, according to the Washington-based financial institution.

Morocco’s current account balance will be -2.2% in 2020, -3.8% in 2021 and -4% in 2022, according to the IMF semi-annual report.