Soaring Costs, Fresh Rains Put Morocco Rate Hike on Cards

Morocco looks set to extend its cycle of monetary tightening into this year, doubling down on efforts to tame the fastest inflation in decades by continuing with its first interest-rate increases since 2008.

Three of the kingdom’s major financial institutions expect Bank al-Maghrib to increase the benchmark by between 25 and 50 basis points from its current 2.5% at Tuesday’s quarterly policy meeting. That would follow hikes of 50 basis points apiece in September and December.