Reuters HEFTY handouts have helped Morocco contain street protests, but now it faces a tough balancing act of rationalizing spending while boosting economic growth to avoid expanding the ranks of the disenchanted. A government spending spree on wage hikes for state employees and food and energy subsidies has siphoned off over half of public investment funds in 2011. Such funds have been key to stimulating economic growth in the country, a net oil importer, over recent years. Now, opposition to the sale of state assets, a sharp drop in foreign currency reserves due to a surging trade deficit and the instability of local and international debt markets mean Morocco may be forced to seek assistance from foreign donors to finance its 2012 budget, said an official at an international financial institution, who declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue. Morocco, which is already the biggest recipient of European Union financial aid outside Europe, raised about 1 billion euros from a eurobond issue in 2010, but jittery global markets could make another debt issue more difficult next year. The country's financing needs could be inflated further if economic conditions continue to worsen in the EU, which is Morocco's main export market and a key source of some $13 billion generated annually by tourism and migrant workers' transfers. Morocco raised food and fuel subsidies in 2011 to 48 billion dirhams ($6.1 billion) from a budgeted 17 billion, and in May increased the annual burden of public sector wages by 11 percent to 95 billion dirhams with salary hikes. This followed street protests, inspired by the revolts in Tunisia and Egypt. The 48-year old king offered to hand some powers to elected officials while retaining a key say in strategic areas. Protests have continued, however, and the palace hopes early parliamentary polls in November will satisfy critics. The handouts will raise the government's budget deficit this year to between 5.5 and 6 percent of gross domestic product, which is estimated at $105 billion, the International Monetary Fund estimated in August. That would far exceed the 3.5 percent originally projected by the government. For the IMF, “the major challenge for Morocco remains achieving a GDP growth rate that will help reduce unemployment and improve living standards, while ensuring medium-term macroeconomic stability”. “Persistently high commodity prices, the regional context, and global financial stability add uncertainties to (Morocco's) economic outlook,” it said. With almost a third of youths unemployed, high poverty rates, a poor education system and problems with nepotism and corruption, Morocco seems in the eyes of some analysts to contain all the ingredients for a revolt. Through public investment, mostly in infrastructure, the state has mitigated popular discontent in recent years by creating thousands of jobs. But private firms, especially manufacturers, have struggled, especially after Morocco signed free-trade agreements with dozens of countries such as Turkey, Egypt, the United States and the EU over the past 15 years. The economy, where a rain-dependent agricultural sector accounts for 15 percent of GDP but employs 40 percent of workers, has over the past few years been growing at an average rate of 5 percent, below a minimum 7 percent which analysts believe is needed to keep unemployment stable. “The government will need some external support for the 2012 budget. It will most likely come from the French Development Agency, France or other Western countries,” said the official at the international financial institution. Morocco may obtain funds from a multi-billion dollar initiative to help countries affected by the Arab Spring that was announced by the Group of Eight nations in Deauville, France last May. __
