Morocco's banks are not exposed to the US financial crisis but the economy could be affected by the global economic slowdown triggered by overseas financial turmoil, Morocco's central bank chief said on Thursday. “Our investigations showed that roughly Morocco's financial system has no assets with banks in difficulties abroad,” Abdellatif Jouahri told a news conference. “Total assets of Moroccan banks abroad are around 31 billion dirhams ($4.02 billion), which account for around 4.0 percent of their whole assets. That is to say that is not big,” he said. “A priori, there is no risk for Moroccan banks,” he added. Turning to the central bank, officially known as Bank al Maghrib, which manages the country's foreign currency reserves, Jouahri said: “Bank al Maghrib has no position that might cause difficulty to any asset of the currency reserves.” Jouahri appeared to rule out any impact from the global financial crisis in Casablanca bourse losses on Sept 15-16, estimated by analysts at 50 billion dirhams. “No hedge funds or real estate funds own shares in Casablanca bourse and no sell-off of stocks in Casablanca by any foreigners to cover difficult positions abroad took place,” he said. Moroccan authorities were probing the possible causes of the bourse slump on Sept 15-16. Local newspapers blamed panic by small investors and manipulation by some brokerages. Jouahri said the global slowdown caused by the financial crisis could affect Morocco's economy. “Morocco has an economy that is exposed to foreign markets and foreign economies and the global slowdown may affect the economy by impacting sectors like tourism and exports,” he said. The government expects the economy to grow 6.8 percent this year, versus 2.7 percent last year, mainly on the expansion of domestic demand and recovery of the key agriculture sector.
