RABAT (Reuters) – Morocco’s economic growth reached 4.7 percent in the third quarter of 2011, up from the second but still below the full-year target after a slowdown led by shrinking mining and tourism activity, the country’s planning authority said on Monday.
Agricultural output rose 4.1 percent rise after a flat third quarter of 2010, and non-agricultural GDP rose 4.9 percent after a 4.6 percent increase in the third quarter of 2010, the High Planning Authority (HCP) said.
Hotel and restaurant activity dropped 2.6 percent, the authority said, after a 3.8 percent drop in the second quarter, which was its worst quarterly performance since the first quarter of 2009.
Tourism contributes close to 10 percent of Morocco’s economy and directly employs 450,000 people.
The July-September period coincided with political turmoil in the region and economic uncertainties in the European Union.
Plagued by social unrest inspired by the Arab Spring revolts, mining clocked a decline of 1.8 percent in the third quarter after posting a 2.3 percent growth in the second quarter, far below a 14 percent rise in the first quarter, 2011.
After growing by 4 percent to around $95 billion in 2010, Morocco’s gross domestic product grew 5 percent during the first quarter of 2011 and 4.2 percent in the second, according to the central bank.
The finance ministry forecast 5 percent growth for all of 2011.
The central bank last month said the Moroccan economy has started to feel the impact of a slowdown in its main export markets in Europe but should still manage growth of 4-5 percent in 2012, matching a growth estimate for 2011 which it revised down from 4.5-5.5 percent.
Casablanca-based AttijariWafa Bank said a survey gauging investors’ confidence in the last quarter of 2011 showed a “clear market consensus opting for distrust”.
“In December, 40 percent of respondents expressed a sense of distrust regarding the overall prospects of the Moroccan economy against only 15 percent in September,” AttijariWafa said.
The percentage of respondents who expressed confidence in the prospects of the Moroccan economy fell to 31 percent in December from 52 percent in September, said AttijariWafa in what it linked mostly to concerns over growing trade and budget deficits.
