The North African kingdom expects a cereal crop of 3.35 million
tonnes, down from last season's record 11 million tonnes. The harvest
includes 1.86 million tonnes of soft wheat, 870,000 of durum and 620,000
of barley.
A farmer
picks strawberries, to be exported, in a field in the town of Moulay
Bousselham in Kenitra province March 15, 2014.
Morocco has cut
its economic growth forecast for this year to less than 2 percent from 3
percent, after the cereal harvest suffered its worst drought in three
decades, the finance minister said on Monday.
It was Mohamed Boussaid's first public comment since the release of the annual harvest figures by the Agriculture Ministry showed a 70 percent drop.
The
North African kingdom expects a cereal crop of 3.35 million tonnes,
down from last season's record 11 million tonnes. The harvest includes
1.86 million tonnes of soft wheat, 870,000 of durum and 620,000 of
barley.
Agriculture accounts for 15 percent of the economy, which grew 4.4 percent in 2015.
"Except grains, all other agricultural cultivations are doing well," Mohamed Boussaid told reporters, adding that non-agricultural sectors were also buoyant.
Boussaid
told Reuters on the sidelines of a news event the government planned to
renegotiate a precautionary credit line with the International Monetary
Fund.
The amount and other details will be
discussed later, he said. The current credit line is worth $5 billion
and will expire in August 2016.
The IMF liquidity
line is intended to provide reassurance to foreign lenders, investors
and rating agencies, allowing Morocco to tap international capital
markets on favourable terms.
The drop in global
oil prices has revived public finances and reduced deficits in the
region's biggest energy importer, giving the country more room to
manoeuvre.
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