ABSTRACT
Although recent publications have depicted Morocco as an 'emerging' (Abdaimi 1994) economy or as an African 'dragon' (Leymarie and Tripier 1993), from 1990 to 1994 Morocco's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by 4.4. per cent a year and its exports by merely 2.5 per cent. These figures prove that Morocco was at that time by no means comparable to an Asian 'dragon'. In 1994 Morocco's GDP increased by 11.6 per cent but GDP decreased in 1995 by 7.6 per cent (see Table 9.1). These results were obtained in a two-year period of extraordinary drought causing a fall in agricultural output of 46 per cent (Bank Al-Maghrib 1995: 19; L'Opinion, 28 February 1996). Moreover, Morocco still is at the mercy of inflationary pressures. In December 199 5 sharp price increases occurred of up to 1.3 per cent for industrial products and up to 11.1 per cent for agricultural products (Bank Al-Maghrib 1995: appendices). New waves of price increases in January and February 1996 were said to be caused by the effects of price adjustments and the financial law of January 1996 (L'Opinion, 18 February 1996).
