RABAT (Reuters) -Morocco’s central bank held its benchmark interest rate at an all-time low of 1.5% on Tuesday, saying its monetary policy was accommodative and consistent with the economic outlook.
The inflation forecast was revised upwards to 1.4% in 2021 and 2.1 next year, the bank said in a statement following its quarterly meeting, citing the impact of imported inflation on foodstuff and fuel prices.
Growth will rebound to 6.7% in 2021 from a contraction of 6.3% last year, on the back of a vaccination push, fiscal and monetary stimulus and an improved harvest, the bank said.
Morocco is Africa’s most vaccinated country, having inoculated 22.8 million people with two jabs from the population of about 36 million. It has introduced booster shots.
Assuming an average cereals harvest, GDP growth is expected to slow to 2.9% in 2022 and 3.4% 2023 amid uncertainties surrounding the pandemic and the potential restrictive measures that may be taken to contain it.
Morocco has kept its borders closed to passenger traffic since Nov. 29 due to the Omicron variant, hitting the vital tourism sector hard.
Remittances from Moroccans abroad are expected to grow to a record 95 billion dirhams ($10 bln) this year, outperforming tourism revenues seen at 33.1 billion dirhams, down 9.2% compared with last year.
As imports continue to outweigh exports amid a rise in the energy bill, the current account deficit would deepen to 2.5% of GDP this year from 1.5% last year.
Morocco’s foreign exchange reserves would increase from 330.4 billion dirhams ($35.7 bln) this year to 341.6 billion in 2022 and 345.7 billion in 2023, based on the treasury’s external borrowing plans.
The fiscal deficit would narrow from 6.9% of GDP this year to 6.3% in 2022 and 5.8% in 2023.
(Reporting by Ahmed Eljechtimi; Editing by Jon Boyle and Ed Osmond)
