In October 5th 2009, a large delegation participated in Istanbul (Turkey) at the 80th meeting of the Development Committee of the World Bank (WB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The delegation was led by Mr. Nizar Baraka, Delegate Minister in charge of Economic and General Affairs who represented Mr. Salah Eddine MEZOUAR, Minister of Economy and Finance and Governor of the World Bank for Morocco
The Minister stressed, in a statement made on behalf of the Group consisting of Afghanistan, Algeria, Ghana, Iran, the Kingdom of Morocco, Pakistan and Tunisia, the importance of this session which comes at a particularly crucial time when, after a deep recession, signs of economic recovery become clearer in 2010 in many countries.
According to the Minister, this relaunch will be slow since the global financial system remains fragile and that public support for the recovery will fade gradually.
Therefore, the Minister notified that it becomes important to go on reinforcing the financial sector through macroeconomic policies and stressed that the effective supervision of the financial system can be achieved only through concerted efforts of coordination.
He added that even if the growth forecasts for developed countries in 2010 continue, the economic recovery in many developing countries would come much later,
In addition, some middle-income countries could generate fiscal space that allowed them to mitigate the impact of the crisis, while the majority of developing countries (PED) have suffered severely from the effects of the crisis.
It is alarming that the output of most (PED) will remain low, the pressure on budgets and external accounts will persist, and unemployment levels will continue to rise well into 2010. As such, the (PED) have an urgent need for additional financing notably the concessional one.
Concerning the Group represented by Morocco, the Minister pointed out that the effects of the crisis were mainly transmitted via the channel of the real sector rather than the financial sector,
Starting from the last quarter of 2008, the slowdown in economic activity and the credit crunch in the Eurozone have affected Moroccan exports, tourism receipts, cash transfers made by Moroccans residing abroad and foreign investment.
Thus, the emergence of a current account deficit of balance of payments and the decline of our currency reserves.
To cope with this situation, Morocco has proceeded to mitigating the effects of the crisis on export sectors, particularly through the implementation of a strategic watch committee which includes members of the government and operators from the private sector.
In addition, Morocco chose an increasing reliance on external resources particularly from international financial institutions to meet the requests of growth and to finance its economy.
He added that countries with low-income need at most additional external resources because they will go on, according to the World Bank, suffering from the impact of the recession which leads to large budget deficits and growing needs in external resources.
Close of, the Minister stressed the importance of estimating the financial ability of the World Bank and voting for developing countries (PEDT) at the World Bank Group.