The Moroccan Central Bank decided to keep the interest rate unchanged at 1.5 percent, despite the high inflation rate, which is expected to reach 5.3 percent this year.
The Central Bank Council decided to keep the main interest rate at 1.5 percent, in a context marked by the intensification of inflationary tensions, especially imported from abroad.
The Central Bank announced that it had analyzed the international conditions marked by the war in Ukraine, the exacerbation of inflation to record levels, the tightening of monetary policies and the deterioration of the global economic outlook. The Bank noted that the national economy is suffering from a slowdown paralleled by the acceleration of inflationary tensions, resulting from the rise in the prices of energy and food commodities in the world.
Keeping the interest rate unchanged comes in a context marked by a slowdown in economic growth, which is expected to reach 1.1 percent this year, compared to 5.3 percent last year.
In light of the repercussions of the pandemic in 2020, Bank Al-Maghrib reduced the interest rate in two stages, to move from 2.25 percent to 1.5 percent. The Central Bank had reduced that rate last year from 2.25 percent to 2 percent, and then to 1.5 percent, at the same time, he took a decision to free banks from the compulsory reserve, which is required by the precautionary rules in force.
Source (Al-Araby Al-Jadeed Newspaper, Edited)
