Home > Economy > Morocco’s External Debt Soars to $49 Billion, World Bank Reports
Morocco’s External Debt Soars to $49 Billion, World Bank Reports
Saturday 5 October 2019, by
The external debt of developing countries has increased to $7,800 billion in 2018, an increase of 5.3% year-on-year, according to a World Bank report. The situation has deteriorated in several countries since 2009, including in Morocco, warns the international institution. At the end of 2018, the stock of the Kingdom’s external debt reached a more than significant amount.
The stock in Morocco is still mainly made up of long-term external debt, with $40.803 billion last year, compared to $7.446 billion for short-term debt, debts to which is added the credit of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) whose outstanding amount reached $781 million in 2018.
According to the newspaper Le Matin, the outstanding long-term external debt, which mainly concerns public debt ($32 billion), comes from multilateral creditors to the tune of $15.483 billion, including $5.529 billion from the World Bank.
Added to this is the bilateral debt amounting to $7.592 billion and private creditors with $9.028 billion. It should be noted that the non-guaranteed private debt weighs $8.7 billion in long-term external debt, mainly from commercial banks.
According to David Malpass, President of the World Bank Group, many developing countries need more investment to achieve their goals and grow faster.
Debt transparency must apply to all forms of public commitments, including hidden or implicit debts.
This is an essential condition for attracting more investment and ensuring an efficient allocation of capital, which is at the heart of efforts to improve development outcomes, the newspaper reports.