Morocco expects to leave FATF grey list in 2023

Morocco is poised to leave the grey list of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a move that will facilitate Morocco’s access to international debt market and improve its sovereign rating, central bank governor said.

The bank hiked its benchmark interest rate by 50 basis points to 2.5% as it expects inflation to surge to 6.6% this year before slowing again to 3.9% in 2023.

But in 2024- as Morocco plans an end to general subsidies in favor of targeted aid to the needy- inflation would increase to 4.2%, Jouahri said.

Growth is expected to slow to 1.1% due to a drop in agricultural output before improving to 3% in 2023, the central bank governor said.

Morocco is also in talks with the IMF to access a flexible credit line, BAM Governor Abdellatif Jouahri said, noting that Morocco could get the IMF financing after the FATF decision.

Jouahri also said that the bank could buy treasury bonds in the secondary market if there was a need to boost liquidity in the market.

He as usual stressed Morocco’s need to foster its macro-economic balances and to speed up reforms, noting that political stability was a major Moroccan asset.