Morocco Faces Economic Downturn as Drought and Coronavirus Impact Growth Forecasts

Is Morocco going through its worst year in two decades? Everything suggests this, in light of the observations made by the HCP.

The High Commissioner for Planning, Ahmed Lahlimi, stressed in a statement to the Bloomberg agency that "the sky has not been very generous this year".

In reality, two significant events justify this reaction from the HCP. First, the drought due to the lack of rainfall. But also, the Coronavirus, which is worrying the authorities of the kingdom at the highest level, due to its dangerousness.

In light of all this, the HCP intends to reduce its growth forecasts for 2020 by a third, precisely to 2.2% or 2.3%. Given the impact of the epidemic on the global economy, while Morocco’s economy is heavily dependent on European tourism, this approach by the HCP could be understood.

While the International Monetary Fund had forecast growth of around 3.7%, the HCP had previously forecast GDP growth of around 3.5% this year for the kingdom.