Over 900,000 people were furloughed in April by thousands of employers hit by the economic repercussions of the novel coronavirus pandemic, Moroccan Minister of Labour Mohamed Amkrazhas said on May 4th.
Amkraz was quoted by the official news agency MAP as telling the question time session at Moroccan parliament that the temporary layoffs had been made by 134,000 companies. The figures give “a rough idea of the extent of damage suffered by national companies and workers alike as the result of the crisis”, Makraz was quoted as saying.
He noted that in March, the National Social Security Fund (CNSS) had recorded on its portal 131,955 companies out of a total of 210,000 firms badly affected by the virus crisis – the equivalent of one in three enterprises. He put the number of workers temporarily laid off in March at 808,199 out of a total of 2.6m employees. (BBC Monitoring 5/5)
EBRD Report
Morocco's economy will decline by 2% in 2020 because of the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic, but a 4% rebound is expected in 2021, according to the latest forecast by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).
The latest edition of the EBRD Regional Economic Prospects report says that the slowdown will be driven by a sharp decline in tourism, measures to contain the spread of the pandemic, a likely poor harvest, a recession in Europe and lower commodity prices. Growth could be sustained by non‐agricultural growth, particularly mining. Morocco is the world's second‐largest producer of phosphate after China. (ebrd.com; africabusinesscommunities.com 13/5) Emergency fund p.22932B