jeudi 17 juin 2010

Morocco’s economy saved itself from crisis, says IMF



RABAT: Morocco has suffered little from the global economic crisis due to an economy that is diversified and the rising information technology sector in the country, the International Monetary Fund Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said Wednesday.
“Countries with diversified economies, such as Morocco, have better resisted (the global financial crisis) and could have a strong rate of growth,” Strauss-Kahn said in an interview published on Wednesday by the Egyptian newspaper Al Ahram Hebdo.
“Morocco is a very good example. This country has successfully overcome the crisis. It will have a strong growth,” he said.
Strauss-Kahn added that among the problems in some African countries and other parts of the world is “having an economy insufficiently diversified or completely energy-based.”
Here in Morocco, government officials are confident that their efforts to create a new means of economic progress with alternative energy has shown that the costs of doing show are well worth it.
According to Yussif Said, a technology advisor to the government in Rabat, “we are moving forward on a number of local reforms and have given attention to the IT sector because we understand that through the Internet and our citizens, success will be had.”
He pointed how the IT sector has thrown its weight behind the massive $9 billion solar energy project that could see half of the country’s energy come from solar power by 2025.
“The IT firms are behind this initiative and show that we don’t have to focus on one sector over another,” he added.
The IMF boss said that “overall, Africa has overcome the crisis better than expected. Now we notice in most countries a return to growth.”
BM