Morocco's Central Bank raised its forecast for growth this year from 3.3 % to 3.6 %, given the quality of agricultural crops.
"Due to the size of agricultural crops, which according to the Ministry of Agriculture is 100 million quintals of grain, we expect this year to grow by 3.6 % due to the good performance of agriculture and the continued growth of non-agricultural sectors," said Abdel Latif Al-Jawahiri.
"The rate of growth of value added for agriculture is scheduled to reach 5.7 percent this year, while the growth rate of non-agricultural sectors is expected to increase to 3.2, compared with 2.7 last year”, as per Al-Jawahiri.
Al-Jawahiri expressed his concern about the continued slowdown in bank loans to the non-financial sector, which has declined to 3.1 percent. "The continued declined growth of bank loans to companies, which was only 2 percent at the end of last April," he said.
Al-Jawahiri predicted that the budget deficit this year will reach 3.4 % and drop to 3.3 % in 2019. Exports are expected to continue to rise as a result of the good performance of the auto industry. The expected growth in exports will be 5.8 percent this year and 6.9 percent over the next year. He also predicted that tourism revenues would improve this year by 8 % and that remittances would rise by 6 %.