For the first time in Morocco's foreign trade sector: exports grew faster than imports. At the end of the first half of
the year, the country's exports increased 16% compared to 12% for imports.


In terms of value, exports reached MAD 66.4 billion against 57.2 in the same period last year, while imports stood at
MAD 145.3 billion compared to MAD 129 billion last year.

This development has allowed for an improvement in Morocco's cover rate which stood at 45.7% against 44.2% at the end of
June 2009.

According to the Moroccan daily L'Economiste, quoting a report by the Exchange Office to be published later this month,
transfers by Moroccans living abroad increased by 11% and travel receipts by 10%. 

The only negative point, said the same source, is the fall of foreign investments and loans, which decreased 23.3%, as
they stood at MAD 10.2 billion in the year to June relative to MAD 13.3 billion in the same period last year. 

But despite this improvement, Morocco's trade deficit reached at the end of May 2010 MAD 64.6 billion, an expansion of
9.2% compared to the same period last year. for its part, the cover rate stood at 45.1% against 44.4%.

Morocco will create a new financial hub in Casablanca to make the city more attractive to international investors.

For this purpose, HM king Mohammed VI appointed on Monday Said Ibrahimi managing director of a new company in charge
developing and managing the future Casablanca financial hub, said a statement of the king's office. 

The monarch thus entrusted Ibrahimi, who has been treasurer-general of the kingdom, with the job of setting up the
infrastructures necessary for the promotion of this project designed to attract international investors.

This project mainly aims at making Casablanca an international financial centre, with a view to enhancing its
development and economic potential, and preserving its position as a major regional capital. 

The statement also reported that the king stressed the need to integrate this project into a comprehensive vision,
taking into consideration all its components in terms of urban design, infrastructures, equipment, legal framework and
human resources training.

He also underlined the necessity of implementing management techniques and methods appropriate to an international
financial centre.

The sovereign also appointed Noureddine Bensouda as treasurer-general of the kingdom, to replace Said Ibrahimi. Bensouda
has been the managing director of the tax office.

King Mohammed VI thus held a meeting, on Monday in his palace in Casablanca, with the two men, in the presence of the
country's finance minister and the central bank's governor.

Morocco's central bank, Bank al Maghrib (BAM), has decided to keep its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 3.25% and to
cut banks' capital reserve ratio required by 2%.


In a statement issued after the quarterly meeting of its board on Tuesday, BAM explained that it will reduce the ratio
from 8% to 6% as of the beginning of April. 

The central bank noted that this move is due to "the scope and sustained nature of liquidity shortfall on the money
market", forecasting an inflation of 1.4% over the coming six quarters.

Core inflation, which reflects the underlying trends of prices, has remained stable at about 0%, added the bank's
statement.

For its part, headline inflation has been hovering around 0 percent for several months, standing at 0.1 percent in
February, up from -0.7 percent in January 2010.

Although it expected the overall economic conditions to continue improving, BAM pointed out that “the extent and pace
of this improvement in the coming quarters are still surrounded by uncertainties mostly arising from high unemployment
rate, sluggish credit and ways to withdraw fiscal stimulus.”

It also explained that gross domestic product this year is expected to stand between 3 and 4%, as a result of the slight
decline in this year's agricultural performance compared to that of 2009. 

As to the non-farming sectors, activity is expected to register a slight improvement compared to the year 2009, noted
the country's central bank. 

Last year, thanks to the exceptional rainfalls and the good agricultural season, the GDP growth reached 5.1%, which
compensated for the slowdown in the non-farming sectors affected by the international crisis.

During the meeting, the banks' board examined recent economic, monetary and financial trends, and the inflation
forecasts prepared by the Bank staff up to the second quarter of 2011.

The Spanish city of Granada has hosted the first summit between Morocco and the European Union. It is a symbolic
political event, which constitutes a turning point in the history of their bilateral relations.


This summit will contribute to enhancing the psychological perception, behaviours and vision of both parties' economic
players, thereby laying the foundations for a new partnership culture. 

Thus, regular political dialogue between Moroccan and European heads of states and governments will be held alternately
between the two sides of the Mediterranean. 

This summit represents a concrete implementation of the advanced status granted to Morocco in 2008, opening the door
wide for strategic partnership between the two parties.

Relations between Morocco and Europe are marked by forty years of common history, though shaken by some conflicts and
tensions concerning particularly agricultural and fisheries products.

The first phase in relations started with the signing of a trade agreement in 1969, ten years after the birth of the
six-country Europe in Rome. The second, an association agreement, dates back to the year 2000 and was a quantum leap in
their relations. 

However, this experience showed the limits of the European approach: free trade logic alone exacerbates the imbalanced
trade and disparities between the north and the south. 

Hence, a more global and coherent vision, integrating the political, cultural and human dimensions, has become a
necessity, that is to say going beyond the standard undifferentiated agreements which neglect the particularities of
each country concerned.

The third phase comes with the granting of the advanced status, which crowns a long process of moving from a sectoral
vision to a strategic one. 

This phase coincided to the expansion of the EU which counts today 27 countries, against six half a decade ago. It is
the Europe of Lisbon treaty: new borders, new aspirations and new constraints.

Today, with this reality, the proximity of Europe has other implications, under the combined effect of globalization,
the rise of new regional groupings and the new threats that weigh heavy on the region. 

It is in this context that the advanced status presents itself as a convergence agreement. It is an asset but a test at
the same time. It represents long-term integration in the European economic space thanks to mechanisms and terms that
have yet to be defined. 

In addition to the political, institutional and economic instruments, this convergence agreement requires audacious
financing. Son, why not repeat the experience of European structural funds to accelerate the modernization of the
Moroccan economy.

Morocco will be one of the few countries to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by the year 2015, said on
Tuesday the head if the High Commission for planning (HCP), Ahmed Lahlimi Alami.


This is the conclusion of UN officials, the UNDP projection, as well as the studies conducted by the HCP, Lahlimi
explained during the presentation of the 2009 national report on MDGs, at the HCP headquarters.

The head of the HCP, which is in charge of statistics, also recalled that Morocco has been able to reduce the deficits
registered in terms of growth and human development in the 1990s.

He also highlighted the achievements made in economic, social and urban infrastructures, which have contributed to the
decentralisation of the economy, and resulted in a better distribution of jobs, incomes and basic social services.

Concerning education, Lahlimi stressed that Morocco is on its way to achieve the goals set in this respect, recalling
the program launched by the country to upgrade this vital sector. 

He also touched on employment which has benefited from the National Initiative for human Development, propped up by
other social programs. 

These, according to him, have resulted in the reduction of unemployment rate and the improvement of the population's
living conditions, mainly in the countryside. 

The Moroccan official added in this respect that the country will soon set up a new body in charge of strategic economic
and social planning, which is the economic and social council, called for by the king.

As for the international crisis, Lahlimi underlined that although Morocco showed relative resilience, it lost 0.9% of
its GDP growth rate in 2008 and 2.4% in 2009.

The eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) include halving extreme poverty, halting the spread of HIV/AIDS, providing
universal primary education, reducing child and maternal mortality, promoting gender equality and environmental
sustainability, and developing a global partnership for development, all by the target date of 2015.

In September 2000, the world's countries along with most of the world's leading development institutions came together
at the UN Headquarters in New York to adopt the UN Millennium Declaration, committing themselves to a new global
partnership and setting out a series of time-bound targets called the Millennium Development Goals.

Morocco signed on Tuesday in Geneva a cooperation agreement with the international Trade Center (ITC) for the
implementation in Morocco of a program that aims at enhancing Arab capacity for trade (ENACT).

Financed by the Canadian intergovernmental Agency for International Development, ENACT is a regional program of
technical assistance for reinforcing the trade policy-making function, trade promotion and enterprise competitiveness in
five Arab countries.

Implemented by the ICT, it aims at promoting additional trade, both from the region outward and between the countries
concerned: Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia.

ENACT, whose overall budget stands at 8,439,000 dollars, 1.6 dollars of which are earmarked for Morocco, will support
the country's sectoral development programs and the companies involved in the export sector. 

Harmonizing the measures for the integration of these countries in the trade system and enabling them to exchange
experiences in the development of foreign trade are also among the objectives of the program. 

“Through developing regional trade with complementary strategic partnerships, these countries can have a better
position in international markets,” said Patricia Francis, the director of the ITC, who singed the agreement with
Morocco's Foreign Trade Minister Abdellatif Maazouz. 

The ITC, a joint agency of the World Trade Organization and the United Nations, was created to help developing and
transition countries achieve sustainable human development through exports.

It provides five complementary business services: business and trade policy, export strategy, strengthening trade
support institutions, trade intelligence and exporter competitiveness.

Trade between the member states of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) reached USD 275 billion in 2008,
said on Tuesday in Cairo the Director General of the OIC, Allal Rachdi.

“Trade between Islamic countries represented 16.6% of their overall trade in 2008, against 10% in 2000,” Rachdi
explained at the 13th forum of Muslim businessmen. 

Concerning Morocco, the OIC official told MAP news agency that the country's trade with these states represented 12% of
its overall commercial transactions.

Highlighting the Moroccan economic potential, Rachdi underlined that his organization is taking a number of measures to
boost trade between its member states.

Morocco has called on china to open its market to Moroccan products, as Morocco's share in the bilateral trade does not
exceed 7%. 

During a meeting on “economy and commerce between Morocco and china”, Morocco's Minister of Foreign Trade Abdellatif
Maazouz said that Sino-Moroccan trade registered during the last threes an average annual growth of 72%, reaching USD
2.5 billion in 2008.

However, “Morocco's share (7%) remains below the potentials of the Moroccan economy, mainly on the Chinese market,”
underlined the Moroccan Minister. 

He added that “this figure pushes us to reinforce the two countries' commercial relations on the basis of mutual
advantages.”

Morocco's overall economic freedom score is still below the world average, as its economy scored 57.7, ranking 101st
freest in the 2009 Index among 179 countries.

This year's score, provided by the Heritage Foundation, has slightly improved compared to last year, as Morocco got 2.1
points higher than last year's, reflecting small increases in six of the 10 economic freedoms. 

Morocco also ranked 12th out of 17 countries in the Middle East and North Africa region, explained the foundation, which
is a think tank whose mission is to formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free
enterprise.

The think thank has found that “Morocco's economy benefits from relatively high levels of business freedom, monetary
freedom, and investment freedom.” 

It also explained, in a press release published on its website, that foreign and domestic investments receive equal
treatment, and that the small but growing financial sector is fairly well developed for the region. 

The foundation thus hailed the government's reform efforts in recent years, especially in terms of simplifying the tax
regime and improving the transparency of fiscal management.

The institution stressed, however, that although privatization has been steady for about a decade, “the state
maintains at least partial ownership across a broad spectrum of sectors.”

It also added that Morocco scores less well in labor freedom, property rights, and freedom from corruption, while for it
the judiciary is “inefficient” and subject to corruption.

Morocco thus scores 76.2 in business freedom, 68.0 in trade freedom, 65.1 in fiscal freedom, 80.5 in monetary freedom,
60.0 in investment freedom and 50.0 in terms of financial freedom. 

Concerning government size, Morocco got 76.5, while it received 35.0 in property rights, 35.0 in freedom from corruption
and 30.8 in labor freedom.

Morocco's Monetary Policy Council, belonging to the Central bank, has further lowered commercial banks' reserve rate
from 10% to 8%.

The central bank explained, in a statement, that this move was taken to ease the liquidity crisis, adding that it may
further lower it later. It had earlier cut it from 12 to 10.

During its meeting on Thursday, the Council also decided to keep the benchmark interest rate at 3.25%, as a result of
slowing inflation.

The Year-on-year June-July inflation stood at about 1% before falling to zero percent in August, as some fresh produce
prices rose, Bank Al Maghreb said in the statement made after the bi-annual meeting of its council.

Morocco has allocated MAD 300 million for a marketing campaign to promote the country's ailing tourism sector.

This campaign will mainly focus on the city of Marrakech, said the strategic follow-up committee in its fourth meeting.
The Committee was established to follow up the developments of the sector in the light of the current international
crisis. 

The kingdom's tourist sector has suffered from the international financial crisis, which pushed the government to put
off the completion deadline of its tourist projects part of ‘2010 Vision' to 2016.

The 2010 Vision aims at developing six coastal resorts, promoting the country's accommodation capacity and attracting up
to 10 million visitors by the year 2010.

Earlier this year, Morocco had launched a new strategy for the year 2009. Dubbed “Cap 2009”, the MAD 550-million
plan is a bunch of concrete and tactical measures designed to alleviate the impact of the financial crisis on this vital
sector.

Information and communication technology (ICT) has become an integral part of Moroccan companies, revealed a survey
conducted recently by the country's telecoms regulatory body (ANRT).
The ANRT found that companies' investment share in the ICT reached 9% in 2008. Naturally, the technological sector
invests the lion's share (30%), followed by the service/transport sector (8%). 

Thus, the survey, conducted on April 3-9, has shown that 91% of the surveyed companies (500) use the internet, most of
them prefer the ADSL connection, with a slight rise of 3G (13% of companies).

However, internet use remains limited to a certain category of workers. In the industrial sector, about three quarters
of internet users are executives.

In the technological sector, on the other hand, there is no difference between executives and non-executive in terms of
internet access, which is natural given the domain in which they are working. 

Concerning e-commerce, companies are still reluctant in this respect, both in terms of online sales and purchases, as a
result the low use rate and the lack of interest observed. 

For 38% of respondents, clients are not ready to buy online, while 37% of them declared that their products are not
adapted to such commerce. Many of them cited payment insecurity as the main hurdle facing online commerce. 

Electronic mailing and the search for information remain the main internet use for most of the companies (95%). Getting
information from public organisations is also predominant (78%).

All in all, Moroccan companies are increasingly availing themselves of information and communication technology. In
2008, 16% among them have their websites, most of which are commercial.