Morocco’s central bank kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 2.25% this Tuesday, saying inflation would remain moderate this year despite heightened global economic \u200cuncertainties around conflict in the Gulf. The impact of war in the Middle East would remain “relatively contained” in the baseline scenario of a short\u2011lived conflict, the central bank said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
However, the repercussions could become “more significant” if it were to drag on \u2060or escalate, particularly through external\u2011account pressures and higher energy prices, it added.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Inflation is expected to remain stable at 0.8% in 2026, before picking up to 1.4% next year, the central bank said in a statement after its quarterly meeting.<\/p>\n
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The central bank revised upwards its growth forecast in 2026 to 5.6%, from 4.8% last year thanks to an improvement in farming output after abundant rainfall \u200cended \u2060a seven-year drought.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The cereals harvest is seen growing to 8.2 million metric tons this year, the central bank said.<\/p>\n
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Growth would slow to 3.5% next year, assuming an average harvest, it said.<\/p>\n
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Morocco’s current account deficit \u2060is expected to expand to 3.1% of gross domestic product in 2026, from 2.3% last year, due to a surge in energy imports. Phosphate and fertiliser sales, \u2060remittances from Moroccans abroad, tourism and foreign direct investment would rise in 2026, it said.<\/p>\n
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Morocco’s foreign exchange reserves are seen \u2060growing to 482 billion Dirhams ($51.5 billion) by 2027, enough to cover 5.5 months of import needs, the central bank said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
–Reuters–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":29014,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-29013","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Morocco's central bank kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 2.25% this Tuesday","published_date":"2026-03-17 16:31:38","news_description":"Morocco's central bank kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 2.25% this Tuesday","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/29013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/29013\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29015,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/29013\/revisions\/29015"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=29013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}