Morocco announces 12% drop in external debt, 5.5% increase in growth rate
Morocco, Economics, 2/18/2004

Moroccan minister of finance and privatization, Fathallah Oualalou, announced Monday that the Moroccan economy has posted in 2003 a 5.5% growth rate, a 1.2% inflation rate and a budget deficit accounting for 3.5% of the GDP.

The official told reporters Morocco's public debt was lowered by 16.6 billion DH (one US$ is about 9 DH) from 142.3 billion DH in Dec 2002 to 125.7 billion DH end of 2003, while internal debt increased by 20.1 billion DH (from 191.5 billion DH to 211.6 billion DH).

Meanwhile, he went on, the balance of payments posted a surplus accounting for 3% of the GDP, compared to 4.1% in 2002 and 4.8% in 2001. Tourism receipts were maintained at 29.3 billion DH despite an unfavorable context resulting from the war in Iraq and the terrorist attacks in Casablanca (May 2003) while remittances by Moroccan expatriates progressed by 7.4% to total 34 billion DH.

Morocco's external trade was marked by a slight increase of imports (4%) and a decrease of exports (3.6%) and foreign investments and private loans totaled 21.8 billion DH in 2003, said the minister who added that Morocco foreign currency reserves were worth US$ 14 billion, which equals 10 months of imports.

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