Morocco’s economic growth may accelerate to about 5 percent this year, driven by a bumper harvest, Finance Minister Nizar Baraka said.
“Since the cereals harvest exceeded our initial forecast by 50 percent, this should reflect positively on overall economic growth that should hover around 5 percent this year,” Baraka said in an interview at an African Development Bank meeting in Marrakesh.
The economy grew 2.4 percent last year, Baraka said last month, and the government had earlier projected growth of 4.5 percent for 2013.
Morocco has escaped the uprisings that swept across North Africa in 2011. The government last year negotiated a $6.2 billion credit line from the International Monetary Fund, and it’s seeking to reduce subsidies in order to rein in a widening budget deficit.
The gap rose to 7.6 percent of gross domestic product last year from 7 percent in 2011, Raza Agha, chief Middle East and Africa economist at VTB Capital in London, said in an e-mailed note today.
