Morocco Boosts Defense Budget Amid Regional Arms Race with Algeria

Morocco will allocate about $11.03 billion next year to defense. This amount does not represent the projected budget of the department contained in the 2023 Finance Bill, notes a note from the Ministry of Finance, specifying that the Council of Governors will rather allocate $5.2 billion to the defense portfolio.

According to the explanations, this is the amount that the Ministry of Defense is authorized to spend, taking into account the credits, in addition to the surpluses of the previous year’s budget. This amount will be used for "the acquisition and repair of equipment for the Royal Armed Forces."

However, it is specified, this budget represents an increase of 3.6% compared to the 2022 annual budget law which amounts to $10.64 billion, the document points out. With this increase, Defense is once again the ministerial portfolio that spends the most after National Education, Pre-school and Sports, which is usually at the top of this ranking, the same source notes.