Highlights

The Minister delegate in charge of the Budget gave an Interview to the daily newspaper "Le matin" on the rise in fuel prices

07/06/2012
The Minister delegate in charge of the Budget gave an Interview to the daily newspaper "Le matin" on the rise in fuel prices

In an interview published in the daily newspaper "Le matin", Mr. Driss EL AZAMI EL IDRISSI, Minister delegate to the Minister of economy and finance in charge of the Budget, noted that the increase in fuel prices is due to the consumption of more than 80% of the budget allocated to the compensation in 2012 in 5 months only.    

He also stated that "the decision was made to safeguard macroeconomic balances and thus preserve employment and the level of public debt".

Mr. EL AZAMI EL IDRISSI specified that the Government`s decision to increase the price of diesel fuel, petrol and industrial fuel was "carefully considered" and was surprising to avoid speculation on prices.

"By the end of May, we consumed more than 80% of the allocation of compensation. In mid-July, we would have consumed the totality of the envelope allocated to the consumption if we had continued on the same momentum," he continued, stressing that the Government`s objective was to safeguard the economic and financial balance.

He noted, in this regard, that without this measurement, public investment budget, economy and public spending will be affected. Thus, this decision would maintain the terms of financing Moroccan economy and the level of public investment necessary to the promotion of domestic demand.

Moreover, he highlighted that the increase in fuel prices was made with accompanying measures, including the tightening of control in away that speculators do not take advantage of this increase and supporting the transport sector through making the fleet renewal Fund operational in order to reduce the level of consumption.

In this context, "the increase in fuel price can generate an increase in vegetable prices of about 6 cents/kg for a round trip between Casablanca and Agadir", explained the Minister delegate to the Minister of economy and finance in charge of the Budget. He also specified that any excess of this price would be purely speculative.

He argued that such increase is defined in order to allow for some flexibility for the Government to finance the compensation fund, because the 32.5 billion dirhams target for the current year will not be achieved even with this increase.