Morocco’s economic growth is expected to reach 2.5% this year before rising to 3.3 in 2024 from just 1.1% in 2022, according to the latest World Bank Group projections released on Tuesday. This progress will be made possible thanks to “the resilience of tourism and the automotive industry”, adds in a press release the international financial institution which expects growth of 3.5% in 2025. The World Bank noted that “ Adverse weather conditions will delay the normalization of agricultural production after several consecutive years of drought”. “In Morocco, the persistent drought and high inflation are weakening growth, unemployment having exceeded its pandemic peak in March 2023”, underlines the Washington-based institution. In the Middle East and North Africa MENA region, growth is expected to slow to 2.2% in 2023, with downward revisions from January projections for both oil-exporting and oil-importing countries, the Commission said. same source. However, the level of production is expected to rebound in 2024 to 3.3%, as inflation and global turbulence ease and oil production increases. “The MENA region started the year 2023 on a solid growth dynamic, but which is marking time”, notes the World Bank, noting that the oil-exporting countries, which have benefited from high growth for ten years and from low unemployment last year, announced cuts in their oil production. As for oil-importing economies, they face several challenges, especially high inflation, and their growth has slowed markedly in 2023, the statement said. As the windfall effect of the oil price boom for exporters fades and global demand weakens, oil production has fallen rapidly from double-digit increases at the end of 2022. “Countries that imports of oil suffered from continued adverse conditions in 2023, with median consumer price inflation reaching levels not seen in more than a decade in the first half of the year,” the Bretton institution said. Woods. Oil-importing economies are vulnerable to significant changes in market moods, given their higher public debt levels and more limited foreign exchange reserves, the same source noted. Exporting countries remain highly dependent on oil revenues, and any global initiative to accelerate the transition to green energy could expose them to an unexpected decline in demand for fossil fuels, adds the World Bank. At the global level, economic growth should mark time this year to fall to 2.1%, against 3.1% in 2022, underlines the international financial institution. Growth has slowed markedly and the risk of financial stress in emerging market and developing economies is heightening amid high interest rates, the World Bank says.