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The Moroccan Economy in Brief: Wednesday, January 20, 2021

Morocco is included in the Bloomberg Africa Bond Index:
Morocco and Mauritius have just joined the Bloomberg African Bond Index, announced the African Development Bank (AfDB). The inclusion of these two countries marks a steady progression of the bank's efforts to deepen the bond market in Africa, the AfDB said in a statement. The Bloomberg African Bond Index now captures nearly 90% of outstanding African sovereign bonds in local currency.

The Nexans Group inaugurates a new plant in Morocco:
The Nexans Group inaugurated, this Tuesday in Nouaceur, a new plant for the Telecom Systems Business Unit which will produce fiber optic cable connectorization accessories for FTTH (Fiber to the Home), 5G, Data center and LAN (Local Area Network) applications. Inaugurated at a ceremony chaired by the Minister of Industry, Trade and the Green and Digital Economy, Moulay Hafid Elalamy, this new site, located in the Nouaceur industrial acceleration zone, known as Midparc, is built on 6,000 m² including 3,000 m² of production workshop, and will employ between 250 and 300 people by 2022.

Morocco will invest MAD 5.8 billion to strengthen the storage network for green electricity:
Morocco has launched a series of initiatives to continue the development of renewable energy after the Covid-19 pandemic, said Monday Aziz Rabbah, Minister of Energy, Mines and Environment. Speaking during the proceedings of the 11th Assembly of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) held via videoconference, the Minister noted that there has been no significant impact of the pandemic on the renewable energy sector in Morocco, indicating that the projects programmed have continued, whether wind, solar or hydroelectric projects.

Payment: The contactless is booming:
The health crisis has a negative impact on the electronic payment activity globally. According to data from the Centre Monétique Interbancaire (CMI), the overall volume of activity, which was up +7.8% during the 1st quarter of 2020, has fallen by -7.0% over the year 2020. Foreign card activity also suffered the biggest decline over the same period, with a 59.5% drop for the year as a whole. However, despite these significant declines, contactless payment made a good breakthrough due to the health context.

The dirham appreciates against the dollar:
According to Bank Al-Maghrib (BAM), the MAD has appreciated by 1.89% against the U.S. dollar and depreciated by 0.89% against the euro in December 2020. As regards BAM operations with banks, no auction session has been held since April 2018, notes the central bank in its monthly review of economic, monetary and financial conditions in January 2021.