Morocco’s economic growth is anticipated to rebound in 2024, hitting 3.7% rather than the anticipated 3.4% in 2023, according to Faouzi Lekjaa, Minister Delegate in Charge of the Budget at the Ministry of Economy and Finance.
Lekjaa explained that these expectations could be lowered in the event of the continued deterioration of the world economy prospects in 2024 and a review of growth expectations for the European Union due to the effects of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict and its impact on raw material prices, global production, and supply chains.
This was said during a joint meeting of the two Finance Committees in Parliament on Friday to present the general framework for the draft Finance Law 2024.
“Despite the difficult context and due to the positive dynamics of some non-agricultural sectors, the revival of the decline in the growth of the national economy for the year 2023 did not exceed 0.6 points,” the government official said.
According to the minister, tax revenues were collected with a completion rate of 53.6%, while non-tax revenues had a completion rate of 23.6%. The remaining funds would be collected in the second half of the year.
Lekjaa cited a rise in tax receipts of MAD 5.3 billion and noted that the income tax increased by MAD 1.6 billion, mostly as a result of the rise in the wage tax.
The same source recorded “a gradual transformation of inflationary pressures, which were mainly from external sources to internal pressures, since the beginning of the second quarter of 2022, which spread to local commodities, in addition to drought and water stress, which exacerbated the increase in the prices of fresh food.”
In the context of his discussion of inflation, Lekjaa added that after peaking in February 2023, inflation experienced a gradual decline.
Given the factors linked to the decline in global raw material prices, the easing of supply chain tensions, and the sharp decline in sea freight prices, the downward trend is anticipated to continue.
In addition to concerted efforts to keep up with the restrictive orientation of monetary policy, he said there are factors related to the total absorption of the cumulative effects of previous increases in the main interest rate of Bank Al-Maghrib, particularly the urgent measures taken by the government to mitigate the effects of inflation on local prices.
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