Morocco's upper house endorses appropriations bill

The Moroccan Chamber of Advisors, (upper house) endorsed on Saturday the 1998-1999 appropriation bill.

The bill, which was unanimously adopted last July by the House of Representatives (lower house), projects maintaining the budget deficit at 3 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). It also has a significant social dimension through insisting on the struggle against poverty, improvement of standards of living in the rural world and promotion of low-cost housing projects, Moroccan Minister of Economy and Finance Fathallah Oualalou told the House of Representatives.

Expenses will amount to 132,195,385,000 Dirhams, and receipts will stand at 118,428,567,000 DH in this year's budget.

Several social sectors had their budgets multiplied, including the Public Health Ministry whose budget was increased by 11 percent and the Social Development Ministry whose budget was multiplied 5 fold. The budgets of the Housing and the Youth and Sports departments were increased by 40 and 47 percent respectively, while that of the Culture Ministry was increased by 45 percent.

The appropriation bill also provides for the generation of 12,000 jobs in addition to those that will become vacant following retirements.

The government is not considering any tax increases in order to consolidate credibility inside and outside the country.

"The draft bill did not include any measure likely to destabilize the present fiscal system," Oualalou said.

Regarding the private sector, the budget seeks to build confidence in relations between the administration and the private operators. The proposed fiscal measures aim at promoting investment and improving the economy for the creation of job opportunities.

Unemployment is one of the major social challenges facing Morocco. Moroccan Prime Minister Abderrahmane Youssoufi said lately it would be difficult to fight unemployment without an economic growth rate of 7 to 8 percent.