The recent slowdown of economic growth in Morocco has spurred a change of tack by the government – which means a pivot towards courting the private sector and supporting productive capacities.
Huge infrastructure investments combined with more than 50 free-trade agreements have seen Morocco’s GDP more than double between 2000 and 2019 to over 1,000bn dirhams . However, the pace of growth has gradually slowed down, from an annual average of 4.8% between 2000 and 2009 to 3.5% between 2010 and 2019. This figure runs counter to the investment effort, which represents 32.2% of the country’s GDP,The slowdown has had an impact on the job market. “Each point of growth generated less than 21,000 jobs between 2010 and 2019, compared to more than 30,000 jobs between 2000 and 2009,” says a central bank report.