The National Bank of Morocco held its monetary policy rate unchanged at 2.25% at its June 18th 2019 meeting. The bank noted that inflation was low during the first four months of the year; and it is expected to ease to 0.6% in 2019 from 1.9% in 2018, before rising to 1.2% in 2020, amid greater domestic demand. Linked to this, the government announced in late April a general increase in the minimum wages, with salaries in the private sector rising 10% over two years, with a 5% hike taking effect in July 2019 and a further 5% increase in July 2020. The economy is projected to slow to 2.8% in 2019 from 3% a year earlier, mainly due to lower agricultural output; but to speed up to 4% in 2020, as agriculture activity must rebound sharply, growing 6%. Interest Rate in Morocco averaged 3.77 percent from 1995 until 2019, reaching an all time high of 7 percent in August of 1995 and a record low of 2.25 percent in March of 2016.
Interest Rate in Morocco is expected to be 2.25 percent by the end of this quarter, according to Trading Economics global macro models and analysts expectations. Looking forward, we estimate Interest Rate in Morocco to stand at 2.00 in 12 months time. In the long-term, the Morocco Interest Rate is projected to trend around 2.50 percent in 2020, according to our econometric models.