Growth Sectors in Morocco and Investment Potential: A Quantitative Analysis

Abstract

During the 1990s Morocco implemented a series of major institutional and economic reforms that made the country politically stable and helped it to withstand the destabilizing effects of the Arab Spring. Political reforms resulted in the adoption of a new constitution in 2011, was followed by initiatives to improve justice, public administration, the fight against corruption, and to strengthen governance, transparency, and ethics in public life. The country also embarked on a regionalization of public policies and decentralization of administration to ensure an integrated and durable regional development. This reform momentum was further emphasized by the King of Morocco when in his 2019 throne speech he stressed that “… the stake is thus to rebuild a strong and competitive economy, by encouraging the private initiative, while launching new productive investment plans and by creating new job opportunities…” During two last decades Morocco recorded relatively solid economic and social results due to significant public investments and structural reforms aiming to: (i) stabilize the macroeconomic framework by reducing domestic and external vulnerabilities, in particular through the gradual suppression of subsidies for energy products and some foodstuffs; (ii) improve the framework of management of public finance through the adoption of a new Organic Law of Finance in 2015; and (iii) support the diversification and the competitiveness of the national economy. Morocco also reinforced its sectorial policies through plans for sector development aiming at enhancing the economic growth potential and the creation of jobs, including in the manufacturing sectors with significant added value in sectors such as the automotive, aeronautics and pharmaceutical products. The Moroccan economy has demonstrated an appreciable resilience in the face of an international context characterized by a succession of crises. The rate of growth of real GDP improved on average annually from 3.1% during the 1990s to nearly 4.2% on average annually between 2007 and 2018, sustained by the tertiary sector’s dynamism which posted an increase in its value added of 4.2%, contributing of 2.1 points in the GDP (Figure 1). The secondary sector also showed a similar tendency with a 3.3% increase in added value, carrying with it 0.9 percentage points contribution in economic growth, while the primary sector added value grew by 4.4% for a contribution to the growth of the GDP of 0.6 point (DEPF, 2019).