Morocco

In 2019, Oxfam published a report describing Morocco as the most unequal country in Northern Africa. Morocco’s economy is an important actor of the Mediterranean market, heavily reliant on exports of citruses and other agricultural products, as well as phosphates. It is a member of the Arab League and the Union for the Mediterranean. Morocco claims unrecognized authority over the Western Sahara.

In 2010-2020, Morocco’s average GDP growth rate was 2.6%. In 2020, it was heavily wounded by COVID-19, declining by 9.1% since 2019. In 2019, Foreign Direct Investments in Morocco reached $1.6 billion, the majority coming from Ireland and South African Sanlam group. The top investments recipient was the insurance sector with more than 21% of total inflows, followed by the manufacturing industry.

Morocco is the 11th most populous country in Africa. About 13 million tourists visited the country in 2019, thus generating $7.4 billion. It has one of the highest literacy rate of the 15-24 years old population in Africa — 98% in 2018. The unemployment rate was 11.9% in 2020 (+2.5% since 2019).

Morocco is the world’s first exporter of phosphates with the largest proved reserves. It is a strong regional agricultural exporter (citruses, tomatoes, olive oil, etc.). Almost half of the population (42%) is employed in textile industry. Moroccan pharmaceutical industry has the 3rd turnover in Africa behind South Africa and Algeria with $900 million in 2019.