Food inflation continues to dog Rabat and worry Moroccans

Food inflation in Morocco continues to stir social unrest while giving Rabat a crisis of governance.

According to Reuters on April 20th, Morocco’s consumer price index (CPI) in March rose by 8.2% from a year earlier, on a surge in food prices, the statistics agency HCP said.

Food prices rose by 16.1% from a year earlier while non-food inflation increased by 3%. On a month-on-month basis, the index rose by 0.1%.

Core CPI, which excludes goods subject to price volatility, increased 8.1% year-on-year and 0.1% month-on-month.

Higher food prices triggered government restrictions on the export of some vegetables to European and African markets to reduce prices at home.

Last week, the government scrapped the value-added tax on agricultural inputs to help lower prices of fresh produce and other agrifood products.

Morocco has also been importing beef cattle from Brazil since March after it lifted the import duty to reduce meat prices.

REUTERS