Morocco’s COVID-19 Lockdown Widens Urban-Rural Inequality, Study Finds

The researchers affiliated with the Applied Econometrics Research Team (ERECA) of the Faculty of Legal, Economic and Social Sciences of the University Hassan II of Casablanca have carried out this study. They have nurtured reflections on the assessment of the effects of the health crisis and the possible conditions for getting out of it.

The study report is written in three distinct chapters. One of the chapters deals with the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on households. The experts question the mitigation of the impact of the crisis after the financial measures taken by the authorities in favor of people working in the formal and informal private sectors.

58% of Moroccan households have benefited from government measures, the study indicates. According to the results, male assets and rural residents are more exposed than women or urban assets to the risk of income loss due to confinement. Similarly, health measures have exacerbated social inequalities. Conversely, there is a relative attenuation of the deterioration in the living standards of the upper classes.

During confinement, the poverty rate rose from 3.33% to 34.8% (pessimistic scenario) and 29.4% (optimistic scenario), the authors say, adding that this rate records values of 27.6% (pessimistic scenario) and 21.7% (optimistic scenario) after the granting of aid. "The simulations indicate that this period has seen an acceleration of inequalities," emphasizes ERECA.