Reuters
by Aziz El Yaakoubi
Morocco is considering tapping international debt markets in 2017 through around $1 billion of bond issues, a senior official in the finance ministry said.
The North African kingdom needs around $3 billion in financing this year to plug a budget deficit expected to reach 3 percent of gross domestic product. It plans its first ever Islamic bond in the domestic market in the first half of 2017.
The official, who declined to be named because he was not authorised to speak to the press, said the government sees favourable market conditions this year with attractive rates.
(Reporting by Aziz El Yaakoubi; editing by Patrick Markey and John Stonestreet)