Saturday 30 October 2010
Morocco Foreign Investment May Rise to $3.5 Billion
Posted on 13:40 by google
Morocco expects foreign direct investment to increase by as much as 40 percent in 2011 as the global economy recovers from its worst recession since World War II, a government minister said.
The North African country may attract up to $3.5 billion next year, compared with an estimated $2.5 billion in 2010, Economy and Finance Minister Salaheddine Mezouar told reporters today at the World Economic Forum in Marrakesh. The investments will probably be in “energy, financial services and telecommunications,” he said.
Morocco’s economy is expected to expand 4 percent in 2010, according to the central bank. The government is forecasting economic growth of 5 percent next year, increasing by half a percentage point annually through 2013, Mezouar said in a Sept. 30 interview.
France Telecom SA said in September that it has agreed to buy 40 percent of Medi Telecom SA, Morocco’s second-largest mobile-phone operator, for 640 million euros ($886.5 million) as part of its plan to expand in emerging markets.
Renault SA, France’s second-biggest carmaker, is building a car factory in the Moroccan city Tangiers and production will start in 2012, Chief Executive Officer Carlos Ghosn said today in Marrakesh. The 1 billion-euro ($1.4 billion) plant will have an annual capacity of 400,000 vehicles, with 10 percent to 20 percent to be sold in Morocco and surrounding countries.
Bond Sale
Morocco sold 1 billion euros of 10-year bonds in October as part of a plan to reduce reliance on local borrowing.
Asked whether the government may tap international markets again, Mezouar said in an interview with Bloomberg Television: “We are open to the market, open to the opportunities the market will bring us.”
The government expects next year’s budget deficit to be 3.5 percent of gross domestic product, the minister said, without giving a comparative figure for 2010.
The kingdom’s reliance on exports to Europe makes it vulnerable to any economic slowdown there.
“We can’t say that the crisis is over because as you know we are very linked to the European Union,” Nizar Baraka, minister delegate to the prime minister in charge of general and economic affairs, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television today. “Sixty-five percent of our exports” go to the European Union, he said.
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