عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Business

Morocco Seeks to Lower 2020 Fiscal Deficit to 3.5%

Moroccan Minister of Finance Mohamed Benchaaboun speaks during a news conference in Rabat, Morocco October 22, 2019. REUTERS/Youssef Boudlal
Moroccan Minister of Finance Mohamed Benchaaboun speaks during a news conference in Rabat, Morocco October 22, 2019. REUTERS/Youssef Boudlal
TT
TT

Morocco Seeks to Lower 2020 Fiscal Deficit to 3.5%

Moroccan Minister of Finance Mohamed Benchaaboun speaks during a news conference in Rabat, Morocco October 22, 2019. REUTERS/Youssef Boudlal
Moroccan Minister of Finance Mohamed Benchaaboun speaks during a news conference in Rabat, Morocco October 22, 2019. REUTERS/Youssef Boudlal

Morocco is targeting to lower its fiscal deficit of 3.5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2020 through a bunch of financial and taxation procedures.

Moroccan Minister of Finance Mohamed Benchaaboun said that these measures – included in budget 2020 – will control government spending. He added that his government will count on privatization that will generate MAD3 billion (USD300 million) besides taxation procedures.

Benchaaboun presented on Monday the Appropriation Bill 2020 during a plenary session of the parliament, pointing out that the budget anticipates spending more than MAD488.6 billion (USD51.4 billion) with an increase of 10.2 percent.

It would bring additional incomes worth MAD446.7 billion (USD47 billion), which is a 7 percent increase.

The new budget includes new measures that push investment especially reducing the marginal price of the tax on companies from 31 percent to 28 percent and declining the current price of the minimum rate of the tax from 0.75 percent to 0.50 percent.

This coincides with continuous reform of the investment climate and working on extracting the new charter of investment as well as reforming regional centers for investment.

The minister added that the government allocates great importance to SMEs and emerging projects.

Regarding taxation, the suggested budget encompasses transitional procedures for the sake of enabling firms and individuals to settle their taxation status. Benchaaboun said that the budget is a platform to establish a new stage based on fostering trust and promoting initiatives.

Most Viewed

 
 
Business

ECB's Lagarde Renews Integration Call as Trade War Looms

FILE PHOTO: European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde and Governor of the Bank of Finland Olli Rehn arrive at the non-monetary policy meeting of the ECB's Governing Council in Inari, Finnish Lapland, Finland February 22, 2023. Lehtikuva/Tarmo Lehtosalo via REUTERS//File Photo
FILE PHOTO: European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde and Governor of the Bank of Finland Olli Rehn arrive at the non-monetary policy meeting of the ECB's Governing Council in Inari, Finnish Lapland, Finland February 22, 2023. Lehtikuva/Tarmo Lehtosalo via REUTERS//File Photo
TT
TT

ECB's Lagarde Renews Integration Call as Trade War Looms

FILE PHOTO: European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde and Governor of the Bank of Finland Olli Rehn arrive at the non-monetary policy meeting of the ECB's Governing Council in Inari, Finnish Lapland, Finland February 22, 2023. Lehtikuva/Tarmo Lehtosalo via REUTERS//File Photo
FILE PHOTO: European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde and Governor of the Bank of Finland Olli Rehn arrive at the non-monetary policy meeting of the ECB's Governing Council in Inari, Finnish Lapland, Finland February 22, 2023. Lehtikuva/Tarmo Lehtosalo via REUTERS//File Photo

European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde renewed her call for economic integration across Europe on Friday, arguing that intensifying global trade tensions and a growing technology gap with the United States create fresh urgency for action.
US President-elect Donald Trump has promised to impose tariffs on most if not all imports and said Europe would pay a heavy price for having run a large trade surplus with the US for decades.
"The geopolitical environment has also become less favorable, with growing threats to free trade from all corners of the world," Lagarde said in a speech, without directly referring to Trump.
"The urgency to integrate our capital markets has risen."
While Europe has made some progress, EU members tend to water down most proposals to protect vested national interests to the detriment of the bloc as a whole, Reuters quoted Lagarde as saying.
But this is taking hundreds of billions if not trillions of euros out of the economy as households are holding 11.5 trillion euros in cash and deposits, and much of this is not making its way to the firms that need the funding.
"If EU households were to align their deposit-to-financial assets ratio with that of US households, a stock of up to 8 trillion euros could be redirected into long-term, market-based investments – or a flow of around 350 billion euros annually," Lagarde said.
When the cash actually enters the capital market, it often stays within national borders or leaves for the US in hope of better returns, Lagarde added.
Europe therefore needs to reduce the cost of investing in capital markets and must make the regulatory regime easier for cash to flow to places where it is needed the most.
A solution might be to create an EU-wide regulatory regime on top of the 27 national rules and certain issuers could then opt into this framework.
"To bypass the cumbersome process of regulatory harmonization, we could envisage a 28th regime for issuers of securities," Lagarde said. "They would benefit from a unified corporate and securities law, facilitating cross-border placement, holding and settlement."
Still, that would not solve the problem that few innovative companies set up shop in Europe, partly due to the lack of funding. So Europe must make it easier for investment to flow into venture capital and for banks to fund startups, she said.