Morocco's 2027 budget faces scrutiny over unequal investment, medical brain drain and tax relief

Moroccan lawmakers questioned Thursday whether the government’s MAD 400 billion public investment programme could reach regions left behind by economic growth, while raising concerns over plans to recruit foreign doctors and cut income taxes in a country where many of the poorest households would receive little direct benefit.

The debate, held by the House of Representatives’ Finance and Economic Development Committee, centred on the ability of Fatima Zahra Mansouri’s first budget to deliver improvements in public services, employment and household purchasing power.

The 2027 Finance Bill allocates MAD 44.2 billion to expanding social protection, including an increase in minimum monthly direct assistance from MAD 500 to MAD 600. It also earmarks MAD 45.4 billion for health and social protection, with 8,000 new positions planned, and MAD 121.3 billion for education, higher education and training.

Those commitments come alongside a target of reducing the budget deficit to 3% of gross domestic product, leaving lawmakers to question how spending can translate into services without reproducing existing inequalities.

Aziz Lebbar, an Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM) lawmaker who served on the Finance Committee during the previous legislature, put the country’s uneven distribution of investment at the centre of his intervention.

Speaking for the governing party’s parliamentary group, he estimated that approximately 70% of Morocco’s investment and economic activity was concentrated along the Tangier–Rabat–Casablanca corridor, while other regions shared the remaining 30%.

The figures were presented as the party’s assessment rather than independently established statistics, but Lebbar’s argument had a specific geographic target: Fez, a former industrial centre whose economic position he said needed rebuilding through infrastructure and investment.

He questioned whether Morocco’s investment charter could deliver that redistribution while businesses still faced administrative delays. Regional investment centres, he argued, should process applications within 15 to 21 days, while domestic manufacturers and exporters should receive stronger incentives to compete with imports.

For a government promising MAD 400 billion in public investment, the issue was therefore not only how much money would be spent, but whether businesses outside the main economic corridor could secure approvals, establish factories and create jobs.

A similar problem emerged in healthcare, where Istiqlal MP Salma Al Alami questioned the government’s ability to recruit foreign doctors without addressing the conditions driving Moroccan medical graduates abroad.

Morocco already permits foreign physicians to practise under legislation revised in 2021. In June 2025, the then-health minister reported that 580 foreign doctors were working in the country, but recruiting additional professionals would not necessarily solve shortages in rural and underserved areas.

Al Alami argued that the state was investing heavily in medical training only to see graduates seek better pay, working conditions and professional opportunities abroad. She called for improved compensation, revised on-call arrangements and incentives for doctors in understaffed regions, as well as a national assessment of the cost of medical emigration.

Opposition National Rally of Independents lawmakers questioned whether proposed income-tax reductions could substantially improve conditions for the poorest households, many of whom fall below the taxable income threshold or work outside formal employment.

The debate follows Wednesday’s scrutiny of the economic assumptions underpinning the budget, which forecasts growth of 3.7% in 2027, down from an estimated 4.7% this year, alongside inflation of 1.5% and a cereal harvest of 70 million quintals