Times of India
by Samia Errazzouki
Morocco’s government said on Wednesday it was expecting the economy to grow by 3.2 percent in 2018, down from 4.8 percent this year.
The forecast is more ambitious than that of Morocco’s planning agency, which had said the North African kingdom’s economy would grow 2.9 percent in 2018.
The government is forecasting that its budget deficit will shrink slightly to 3 percent of gross domestic product, down from 3.5 percent in 2017, added the statement published by state news agency MAP.
It gave no details or explanations for the projections, but growth is expected to bounce back this year because of the recovery of cereal harvests after a drought in 2016.
Agriculture accounts for more than 15 percent of the country’s economy.
Morocco started to repair its public finances three years ago after huge deficits in 2012 when the government spent billions to calm Arab Spring-like protests.
It has done more than most countries in the region to make painful changes required by international lenders, such as ending fuel subsidies and freezing public sector hiring.
The government still controls the prices of wheat, sugar and cooking gas.
(Reporting by Samia Errazzouki; Editing by Aidan Lewis and Pritha Sarkar)
