Is the Moroccan government running on empty?
The Moroccan state is having cash flow problems, struggling to keep its head above water following a sluggish pick up in tourism receipts and poor foreign direct investment post covid, which is putting enormous pressure on the country’s foreign investment bureau (AMDIE) and a new young investment minister – not to mention the prime minister himself. The county’s 12 regional investment bureaus called ‘CRIs’ aren’t working and foreigners in the country are noticing that the state infrastructure is running on empty – everything from increased speed traps on the roads to collect quick cash to new residency rules for foreigners now forced to bring in cash just to get an ID card.
On March 6th, Reuters reported that the government had applied to the IMF for an emergency loan of 5bn dollars on a two year “flexible” arrangement.
The week before, Rabat had issued $2.5 billion in “mandatory bonds” in the international financial market, divided into two tranches of $1.25 billion each, state TV said on March 2nd citing Finance Minister Nadia Fettah Alaoui.
The crisis both on a state level and a domestic one will only increase the pressure on the country’s polemic prime minister Aziz Akhannouch, who recently promised to lower food prices for Moroccans in the coming months but has yet to produce the silver bullet on tackling the seismic problem at its heart: corruption.
