Only halfway through the month of August for the fourth time this month, the price of fuel surged on Wednesday at all gas stations around the country.
The price of diesel jumped by about 76 centimes per liter, while the price of gasoline increased by about 52 centimes per liter.
The average cost of a liter of diesel is now 13.20 MAD, while the average price of gasoline stands at 15 MAD per liter.
Morocco is highly dependent on oil imports, being the second largest importer of economically priced Russian oil. Since the government deregulated retail markets in 2015, the price of retail gasoline and diesel has been subject to market forces.
A number of organizations have claimed, however, that as a result of market manipulation retail prices at gas stations are increasing disproportionately to the cost of oil. The Competition Council of Morocco opened an inquiry into the practices of nine Moroccan retail fuel distributors on August 3.
Although retail fuel is no longer regulated by the Moroccan government, the prices of certain food products are, and food prices are also seeing substantial price hikes.
Minister of Economy Nadia Fettah said earlier this year that the government had carried out extensive measures to reduce the rise in prices and to guarantee the availability of meat in markets. She explained that the government had removed the value-added tax on imports of beef and exempted them from customs duties.
She explained that the price increase in food is due to drought, as well as market manipulation and speculation.
Morocco’s Economic, Social, and Environmental Council (CESE) has urged reform of marketing chains and regulating the role of brokers in order to mitigate price hikes on food.
The CESE recommended reform of wholesale markets through establishing standards with which professionals must abide, requiring procedures for the market, and imposing professional eligibility standards before one can even do the job.
The CESE also suggested creating cooperatives, encouraging small businesses, particularly by assisting small- and medium-scale farmers, and monitoring procedures used in sugar and dairy production.
The CESE also recommended increased digitalization for marketing agricultural products by creating digital platforms that would allow farmers to have immediate access to real-time pricing data to better negotiate with stakeholders in the marketing chains.
Additionally, the CESE called for reinforcing price controls and strengthening competition to curb speculation in various sectors. It suggested setting up a “price and profit margin observatory” to help detect unjustified high profits at the expense of citizens’ purchasing power.