Ahead of annual meetings of International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank on October 7 to 9, 2016, in Washington, IMF said in a report published on Oct. 4 that Morocco’s economy should grow by 4.8% in 2017 against 1.8% in 2016.

The new forecast slightly exceeds 4.5% estimated in the 2017 finance bill and 3.5% forecast by the High Commissioner for Planning (HCP). Regarding this year’s forecast (1.8%), it is the same that the African Development Bank (AfDB) predicted, but it exceeds HCP’s (1.5%), Bank Al-Maghrib’s (1.2%) and that of the Centre Marocain de Conjoncture (1.2%).

Positive forecasts by all the various local and international institutions, is based on the hypothesis that agricultural output will be good over the period. According to IMF’s chief, Christine Lagarde, next year, Morocco should get ahead of its neighbors, Algeria (2.9%), Tunisia (2.8%) and Egypt (4%).

Alain Okpeitcha