Morocco’s Central Bank Sets Up Mechanism to Finance Youth Projects with Low Interest

Morocco’s Central Bank Sets Up Mechanism to Finance Youth Projects with Low Interest
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Morocco’s Central Bank Sets Up Mechanism to Finance Youth Projects with Low Interest

Morocco’s Central Bank Sets Up Mechanism to Finance Youth Projects with Low Interest

Morocco’s Central Bank governor has pledged to set up an unlimited refinancing mechanism for loans of youth projects.

Moroccan banks will refinance small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) at 1.25 percent preferential interest rate as part of a plan to ease access to loans, Morocco’s state news agency said on Monday, citing Central Bank Governor Abdellatif Jouahri.

The rate is 100 points lower than the central bank’s benchmark interest rate held at 2.25 since 2016.

The plan was developed together by the government, the central bank and commercial banks after King Mohammed VI decried, in a speech last October, the limited financial support for young graduates and SMEs. He urged banks to contribute to development efforts and to make loans easier.

The country’s Central Bank is considered an independent institution since the amendment of its statute in 2005, and it is charged exclusively with leading the country's monetary policy and ensuring price stability.

During the announcement ceremony, Minister of Finance Mohamed Benchaaboun presented the program’s detailed documents, which included the three parties’ commitments.

Under the same plan, the government and commercial banks set up a fund worth six billion dirhams ($620 million) covering three years to boost the financing of SMEs, young entrepreneurs and to help curb the gray economy, the minister noted.

He pointed out that the program will adopt a set of integrated mechanisms, including loans and financing, take contributions to projects, provide guarantees and technical support and keep up with guidance.

The program aims at creating 27,000 new job opportunities and keeping pace with 13,500 additional construction projects per year.

President and CEO of BMCE Bank (Moroccan Bank for External Trade) Othman Benjelloun, for his part, stressed before King Mohammed VI the banks’ commitment to fully participate in the program, in implementation of the royal directives.

He specifically highlighted the banks’ commitment to freeing their share of the capital of the entrepreneur financing fund and finding a financing proposal for preferential terms in favor of the program’s targeted groups.



Trump Announces 30% Tariffs Against EU, Mexico to begin August 1

President Donald J. Trump speaks at a roundtable discussion at the Community Emergency Operations Center in Kerrville, Texas, Friday, July 11, 2025. (Ricardo B. Brazziell/Austin American-Statesman via AP)
President Donald J. Trump speaks at a roundtable discussion at the Community Emergency Operations Center in Kerrville, Texas, Friday, July 11, 2025. (Ricardo B. Brazziell/Austin American-Statesman via AP)
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Trump Announces 30% Tariffs Against EU, Mexico to begin August 1

President Donald J. Trump speaks at a roundtable discussion at the Community Emergency Operations Center in Kerrville, Texas, Friday, July 11, 2025. (Ricardo B. Brazziell/Austin American-Statesman via AP)
President Donald J. Trump speaks at a roundtable discussion at the Community Emergency Operations Center in Kerrville, Texas, Friday, July 11, 2025. (Ricardo B. Brazziell/Austin American-Statesman via AP)

President Donald Trump on Saturday announced he's levying tariffs of 30% against the European Union and Mexico.

Trump announced the tariffs on two of the United States' biggest trade partners in letters posted to his social media account.

In his letter to Mexico's leader, Trump acknowledged that the country has been helpful in stemming the flow of undocumented migrants and fentanyl into the United States. But he said the country has not done enough to stop North America from turning into a “Narco-Trafficking Playground.”

“Mexico has been helping me secure the border, BUT, what Mexico has done, is not enough,” Trump added, The AP news reported.

Trump in his letter to the European Union said that the US trade deficit was a national security threat.

“We have had years to discuss our Trading Relationship with The European Union, and we have concluded we must move away from these long-term, large, and persistent, Trade Deficits, engendered by your Tariff, and Non-Tariff, Policies, and Trade Barriers,” Trump wrote in the letter to the EU. “Our relationship has been, unfortunately, far from Reciprocal.”

Trump is in the midst of an announcement blitz of new tariffs with allies and foes alike, a bedrock of his 2024 campaign that he said would set the foundation for reviving a US economy that he claims has been ripped off by other nations for decades.

With the reciprocal tariffs, Trump is effectively blowing up the rules governing world trade. For decades, the United States and most other countries abided by tariff rates set through a series of complex negotiations known as the Uruguay round. Countries could set their own tariffs – but under the “most favored nation’’ approach, they couldn’t charge one country more than they charged another.

With Saturday's letters, Trump has now issued tariff conditions on 24 countries and the 27-member European Union.

The European Union’s chief trade negotiator said earlier this week that a trade deal to avert higher tariffs on European goods imported to the US could be reached “even in the coming days.” Maroš Šefčovič told EU lawmakers in Strasbourg, France on Wednesday that the EU had been spared the increased tariffs contained in the letters Trump sent on Monday, and that an extension of talks would provide “additional space to reach a satisfactory conclusion.”

The bloc collectively sells more to the US than any other country. US goods imports from the EU topped $553 billion in 2022, according to the Office of the US Trade Representative.

Trump on April 2 proposed a 20% tariff for EU goods and then threatened to raise that to 50% after negotiations did not move as fast as he would have liked. Sefcovic did not mention any tariff figures.

The higher tariffs as well as any EU retaliation had been suspended as the two sides negotiate. However the base rate of 10% for most trade partners as well as higher rates of 25% on autos and 50% on steel and aluminum had gone into effect.

Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a former Congressional Budget Office director and president of the center-right American Action Forum, said the letters were evidence that serious trade talks were not taking place over the past three months. He stressed that nations were instead talking amongst themselves about how to minimize their own exposure to the US economy and Trump.

“They’re spending time talking to each other about what the future is going to look like, and we’re left out,” Holtz-Eakin said.

He added that Trump was using the letters to demand attention, but, “In the end, these are letters to other countries about taxes he’s going to levy on his citizens.”