Macro-economic situation in Morocco 'healthy', official

Moroccan Minister of Finance and Privatisation, Fathallah Oualalou, affirmed, in Rabat Monday, that the macro-economic situation in Morocco in 2004 was "healthy," and most economic indicators witnessed a significant improvement in comparison to 2003.

Oualalou who was addressing, the Commission of Finance and Economic Development at the House of Representatives (lower house), said that Morocco has achieved a growth rate of 3.5% while the inflation rate was maintained at 1.5%, and the deficit hardly exceeded 3.2% of the GDP, which contributed to decreasing unemployment rate to 10.9% compared to 12.3% in 2003.

The Kingdom's Exchequer ascribed these results to the positive performance in different sectors, particularly agriculture, tourism and light industry.

He also hailed the privatisation program, which, according to an EU-funded study, has had a very positive impact on increasing the tax revenue, the volume of transactions and net proceeds.

This program, the Minister went on, was also beneficial for the Casablanca stock exchange, whose capitalization was multiplied by 41 since 1989.

On the other hand, Oualalou said that the Achilles' heel of the economy in 2004 resided in the increase of imports value, which reached 14.1%, while exports barely exceeded 2.1%.

The Moroccan official also warned against some chronicle problems that undermine the national economy such as the increase in aggregate employment earnings, public expenditure, and unemployment.