Nine months into the pandemic and the economic impact on the Moroccan economy is really starting to show. Already weighed down by drought, Morocco’s GDP is set for its largest fall on record this year and the speed of recovery remains a huge question mark. Whilst the country was successful at controlling the ’first wave’ of Covid, cases have recently soared with deaths running at over 80 a day, seven times the April peak.
At the end of a “remote mission” to Morocco earlier this month, the IMF said it expected GDP to contract by between 6-7% this year owing to a severe drop in economic activity (see chart 1). A sharp fall in government revenues, combined with lower GDP is set to considerably balloon government net debt. The Fund recommends Morocco should start to reduce the public-debt-to GDP ratio from 2022. (CONTINUED - 821 WORDS)
