Facts about Floating Moroccan Dirham

Facts about Floating Moroccan Dirham

Morocco plans to begin the process of liberalization of the dirham in June, the governor of the central bank announced on Tuesday, advancing the timetable for an essential part of the economic reform program with the country's international creditors.

Responding to questions from Reuters, Abdellatif Jouahri said the process would be gradual and it would take 15 years to achieve total flexibility of the dirham.

Morocco had announced that the reform of the exchange rate scheme, would be implemented in the second half of 2017, with the assistance of the International Monetary Fund.

Finance Minister Mohamed Boussaid said Tuesday that the current firmness of the central bank.

"We will launch the first phase of liberalization of the dirham in the second quarter," said Abdellatif Jouahri on the sidelines of a meeting of finance ministers of the region in Rabat. "I can not tell you what the duration of each phase will be, it will depend on the market."

The dirham exchange rate is currently based on a 60% euro currency and 40% dollar currency. Tuesday, a dollar allowed to buy 10.03 dirhams.

Last year, sources said there is talk of expanding currency bands by about 5% in 2017.

Morocco, the largest energy importer in North Africa, recorded a trade deficit of 45.47 billion dirhams in the first three months of the year, up 20.6 percent year-on-year, according to published data Tuesday. (Samia Errazzouki, Véronique Tison for French service)