In a quarterly board meeting on Tuesday, the Moroccan central bank, or Bank al-Maghrib (BAM) noted that inflation had decelerated rapidly from 10.1% in February of 2023 to 5% in August.
According to BAM’s forecast, the slowdown is expected to continue, and inflation is expected to fall from 6.6% in 2022 to 2.6% in 2024.
Considering this data, as well as the “high degree of uncertainty surrounding the international developments and domestic context in the aftermath of the earthquake,” the board of BAM decided to keep the key rate at 3% unchanged.
Growth of the Moroccan economy was also expected to increase to 2.9% in 2023 and 3.2% in 2024, according to Bank Al-Maghrib (BAM) forecasts, although these forecasts did not consider consequences of Morocco’s earthquake.
The overall growth of the economy was generally attributed to a rise in agricultural value added of 5% in 2023 and 5.9% in 2024, and the rate of growth for non-agricultural activity would slow to 2.6% in 2023 before accelerating to 3% in 2024.