Over half of Morocco’s non-agricultural GDP to be unaffected by Coronavirus crisis – Minister

The Moroccan economy is well-equipped to absorb the shocks relating to the measures imposed to contain the coronavirus as over half of Morocco’s non-agricultural GDP operates as usual, Finance Minister said.

Banks, agri-business, extractive industries and public administrations, representing 53% of non agricultural GDP, maintain normal operations and are unlikely to be affected by the coronavirus crisis, said minister Mohamed Benchaaboun.

“The fundamentals of the national economy are resilient and capable of absorbing on the short-term the shocks triggered by this crisis,” Benchaaboun said in an interview with Moroccan daily L’Economiste.

“Morocco has foreign exchange reserves covering 5 months of imports of goods and services,” he said, adding that the country enjoys the trust of its creditors, whether at the bilateral or multilateral levels.

Morocco put the safety of its citizens before all else and took pre-emptive measures against the coronavirus outbreak combined with measures to maintain jobs, he said.

Some 850,000 people affiliated with the pension fund CNSS have already applied to benefit from monthly compensations after they stopped working due to coronavirus confinement.

More are expected to be registered for the compensations targeting the informal sector.

Benchaaboun deplored, however, that tourism will bear the brunt of this global crisis that saw most of the world’s airlines grounding airplanes.