Morocco Investment Report

Morocco Investment Report

Introduction of Morocco:

The Kingdom of Morocco is situated in northwest Africa, with a population of 33 million and an area of 710,850 km2 (including administration over the disputed Western Sahara region). The political capital is Rabat, and the largest city is Casablanca.

Politics:

Its government takes the form of a constitutional monarchy with two houses of parliament and a king who exerts strong executive powers, including dissolving parliament at will. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the two chambers of parliament, the Assembly of Representatives and the Assembly of Councillors.

Economy:

It enjoys a free market open economy with private enterprises in most sectors; however, state-owned enterprises still constitute a large part of strategic industries and conglomerates. Government reforms and steady compounded yearly growth of 7.05% from 2000 to 2010 helped the Moroccan economy to become much more robust compared to a few years ago.

Nominal GDP and growth rates:

Source: IMF

The major resources of the Moroccan economy are agriculture, phosphates, and tourism. Sales of fish and seafood are important as well. Industry and mining contribute about one-third of the annual GDP. Agriculture accounts for only around 17% of GDP but employs 45% of the labor force. Morocco is the world's biggest exporter and third producer of phosphorus, with a huge reserve accounting for 75% of the world total reserve.

GDP composition by sector: Labor force by occupation:

Source: CIA

The country's currency, the dirham, is now fully convertible for current account transactions. During the last 10 years, the dirham has been enjoying slow appreciation against the US dollar.

Moroccan dirham (MAD) against US dollar performance:

Source: Bloomberg

Morocco is still a developing economy, and balance between development and price level is one of the government’s major task. From historic data, we see...