Bank Al-Maghrib Annual Report: Inequality, Unemployment… Jouahri’s Call for Action

For the past several years, Morocco’s economy has evolved in a global environment shaped by successive shocks whose effects have intertwined with profound structural transformations and long-term megatrends, including demographic transition, the rise of artificial intelligence, growing protectionism and escalating geopolitical tensions.Yet despite this challenging backdrop, «recent developments suggest that the momentum observed over the previous two years strengthened further in 2025,» said Abdellatif Jouahri, Governor of Bank Al-Maghrib, while presenting the Central Bank’s annual report to His Majesty the King. During the past year, economic growth accelerated, inflation remained under control and macroeconomic fundamentals continued to improve.
The budget deficit and Treasury debt both declined, foreign exchange reserves increased, and although the current account deficit widened slightly, it remained at a manageable level. According to Jouahri, these achievements «strengthen hopes for Morocco’s future economic and social emergence.» However, beyond sustaining stronger economic growth, the Governor stressed the need for a fairer distribution of its benefits. He highlighted «the significant gap between objectively measured economic performance and the way citizens perceive their own economic reality.»
According to Jouahri, this disconnect can largely be explained by the fact that employment—the primary vehicle for social integration—has remained the weakest link in Morocco’s economy. On the labour market, stronger economic growth has resulted in a significant increase in job creation. However, this improvement has not been sufficient to generate a meaningful decline in unemployment, despite Morocco’s relatively low labour force participation rate. To date, «the active labour market policies implemented over recent years have failed to generate tangible momentum in the labour market, while the employment content of economic growth has weakened considerably,» Jouahri observed. In 2025, fewer than four out of every ten working-age Moroccans were actually employed. Moreover, one-fifth of those employed worked in seasonal or casual jobs. This situation is compounded by the fact that nearly three million young people aged between 15 and 29 remain outside both the education and training system and the labour market.
For the Governor of Bank Al-Maghrib, «the solution lies in better preparing the workforce upstream through a comprehensive upgrading of the education and vocational training system.» The challenge is further complicated by another structural trend. Infrastructure investment, which has been the principal engine of Morocco’s economic growth in recent years, is likely to slow in the period ahead, whereas achieving emerging economy status requires many years of sustained and steady growth. The priority, Jouahri concluded, is therefore «to enhance the spillover effects of investment while continuing structural reforms to maximize its economic returns.»
M.A.M.