Morocco’s Economy Set to Grow 3.2%, Outpacing North African Neighbors

With a forecast growth of 3.2% this year, Morocco will do better than Tunisia or Algeria, according to the economic research department of the French group Crédit Agricole, "the leading financier of the European economy," announcing an average growth of 3% in the MENA region and a continued inflation in commodity prices and imported consumer products. In 2022, the average growth was 5.4%, due to the considerable increase in the GDPs of oil-producing countries that were selling the barrel at over $100, and the strong increase in sales compared to 2021.

This year, the growth of non-oil producing countries should "trend towards a slowdown for Tunisia, remain relatively stable for Egypt and Jordan and would be quite vigorous in Morocco," the study notes, noting that in the MENA region, the kingdom will do better than Tunisia (an oil-importing country) whose GDP should slow down from 2.5% to 2% or Algeria (a producing country) whose GDP growth should drop from 3.5% to 2.9%.

The recovery of the agricultural sector, the energy crisis in Spain, France and Italy, the three European partners of the kingdom, and the changes in the price of imports are, according to Crédit Agricole, the three factors that will determine the recovery of Morocco’s GDP in 2023, after being set at $134 billion in 2022. Regarding household consumption and investment, the rate should progress on average by 3.3% and 3.8% respectively in 2023 for the entire region.

The GDP growth of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, oil producers, should on the other hand fall from an average of 7.5% in 2022 to less than 3% this year, i.e. a slowdown from 8.7% to 3.2% in Saudi Arabia, from 7.0% to 3.8% in the United Arab Emirates and from 4.4% to 2.7% in Qatar. A downward trend that should also be observed in other producing