No reasons for IMF to impose structural adjustment program on Morocco, expert

Director of Moroccan think-tank "Centre Marocain de Conjoncture" (CMC), Ahmed Laaboudi, said there are no reasons for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to implement a new structural adjustment program in Morocco like the one enforced from 1982 to 1992.

Answering a question on any possibility for the IMF to impose a new structural adjustment program on Morocco, Laaboudi assured in an interview published Thursday in "Aujourd'hui le Maroc" daily that economic indicators in Morocco are "better" at present.

"If there are genuine fears in the IMF, it is because of the wage bill," which "represents 13pc of the GDP," he said, deploring that "this average is enormous compared to countries with the same development level as Morocco."

Laâboudi deemed, however, that "we should focus on increasing the GDP instead of concentring our attention on the problem of the wage bill."

The Director of the Casablanca-based CMC, further explained that "the current economic situation is very different from that of 1983."

"Morocco at that time hardly had any currency reserves and could not even pay its debts," he said, noting that "indicators today are better, even if they are not perfect."

"Morocco has currency reserves that can cover twelve months of imports," he underlined.