C. Bank Maintains Key Interest Rate Unchanged at 3%

The Moroccan central bank (Bank Al-Maghrib – BAM) board convened, on Tuesday in Rabat, and decided to keep the key interest rate at 3%, after three straight increases totaling 150 basis points, said the bank in a press release.
The Board has decided to halt the monetary policy tightening cycle, taking into consideration the time it takes for its actions to be transmitted to the real economy.
The Board’s decisions at upcoming meetings will take into consideration an in-depth, up-to-date evaluation of the cumulative impacts of its rate rises, as well as the impact of the different government initiatives taken to boost particular economic activity and household purchasing power.
The Board also noted that inflation continued to decelerate from a peak of 10.1% in Feb. 2023 to 7.1 in May 2023. As a consequence, inflation is expected to average 6.2% this year.
It forecast that food prices would fall by 10.9% this year and remain almost stable in 2024.
The central bank also forecast that the national economy will grow by 2.4% this year, before improving to 3.3% in 2024.