فاس نيوز ميديا جريدة الكترونية جهوية تعنى بشؤون و أخبار جهة فاس مكناس – متجددة على مدار الساعة
In an official meeting held today, Tuesday, at the Royal Palace in Tetouan, His Majesty King Mohammed VI, accompanied by Crown Prince Moulay El Hassan and Prince Moulay Rachid, received Mr. Abdellatif Jouahri, Governor of Bank Al-Maghrib, who presented to His Majesty the annual report of the Central Bank on the economic, monetary, and financial situation for the year 2024.
In his speech before the King, Jouahri highlighted that despite an international context marked by a high level of uncertainty and successive years of drought, the national economy achieved a notable growth of 3.8% overall, and 4.8% in non-agricultural sectors, while inflation decreased significantly to an average of 0.9%.
The Governor of Bank Al-Maghrib confirmed that the central bank had begun easing its monetary policy by reducing the key interest rate twice, alongside meeting all liquidity demands from banks, to accompany this economic recovery.
Regarding employment, Jouahri pointed out the creation of 82,000 jobs during the past year, noting that this number was insufficient to counter the upward trend in unemployment, which stabilized at 13.3%.
He emphasized the ongoing efforts to consolidate public finances, with the deficit decreasing to 3.9% of GDP, thanks to improved tax revenues and significant returns from innovative financing mechanisms.
On the external accounts front, Jouahri stated that the current account deficit remained limited at 1.2% of GDP, supported notably by the dynamism of the automotive industry and phosphate sales and derivatives, alongside a decrease in the energy bill, and increased revenues from travel and remittances from Moroccans living abroad. Official reserves of Bank Al-Maghrib improved to over 375 billion dirhams, equivalent to about five and a half months of imports.
The Governor also reviewed the achievements made since the early 2000s under the distinguished leadership of the King, highlighting one of the most ambitious institutional, economic, and social reform programs, alongside an unprecedented investment program aimed at equipping the kingdom with high-quality infrastructure, a vision regarded as a benchmark by international institutions.
However, Jouahri noted that during the last decade, the national economy experienced a slowdown in growth pace due to successive shocks and ongoing uncertainty in the external environment, which impacted job creation dynamics.
In this context, he recalled that the King initiated significant reforms and projects aimed at accelerating growth and human development, as well as qualitatively and quantitatively upgrading infrastructure to address challenges related to water security, and to enhance energy and food sovereignty, in addition to preparing the hosting of major continental and international events.
He affirmed that these royal initiatives have generated a strong momentum suggesting that 2024 will be a pivotal year in accelerating economic growth and job creation but stressed that public policy must rest on three main pillars:
First, enhancing resilience to shocks through effective governance, strengthening the productive fabric, and encouraging the private sector to fulfill its role in investment and job creation.
The second pillar concerns enhancing the flexibility of public policy to enable effective response and adaptation to evolving contexts, requiring close monitoring of implementation and regular evaluation of results.
The third pillar is the continuation of efforts to maintain macroeconomic balances, notably by consolidating the budget through accelerated revision of the finance organic law, establishing a solid fiscal base, and expediting the completion of pension system reforms.
In conclusion, Abdellatif Jouahri emphasized that all active forces in Morocco are required to better organize and mobilize comprehensively to implement this ambitious royal vision, especially as the kingdom faces important milestones by 2030. The real challenge lies in turning these milestones into catalysts to sustain momentum beyond this horizon, enabling the country to progress into higher income brackets.
At the end of the meeting, Governor Jouahri handed the King the annual report of the Central Bank on the economic, monetary, and financial situation for 2024.
