Last Tuesday in Rabat, the Moroccan minister of finance and economy Mohamed Benchaâboun (photo), announced that the government expects five to six billion dirhams (about $628 million) from privatizing some companies in 2019.

During a press conference dedicated to the presentation of the draft finance bill, earlier this week, the official indicated that public companies that were privatized but in which the government still holds stakes are all eligible for the current privatization project, excluding Office national des chemins de fer (ONCF), which he said is not a public limited company.

"This public company cannot be directly privatized because it does not have a capital but endowment funds", he said explaining that to privatize ONCF, the government will have to restructure it.

Mohamed Benchaâboun further indicated that the revenues generated from an improvement in the management of public companies would reach MAD2 billion ($209.520 million ) in 2019.

He also indicated that "the government expects economic growth to stand at 3.2% in 2019 with containment of the inflation rate to less than 2%".

Flore Kacou