Morocco

The Kingdom of Morocco is located in Western North Africa at the equator bordering the Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea, Algeria, and Western Sahara. It is about the size of California and covers an area of 446,550 sq. kilometers. Morocco’s total population is 32.65 million and is growing at a rate of 1.04% with 57% living in urban areas. The capital city of Rabat has a population of 1.6 million with the other major cities including Casablanca (3.1 mil) and Marrakech (839,000). The people are governed by a constitutional monarchy and are 99% Muslim. The official language used is Arabic however French is often the language of business, government, and diplomacy. The local currency used is the Moroccan Dirham.

Morocco’s economy is still based in agriculture and has been fairly stable in the past decade. Authorities have recently been implementing many reforms aimed at improving living conditions, diversifying the economy, and attracting more foreign investment. Poor living conditions, the poor education system, and high unemployment especially in urban areas are still long-term problems. Its main trade partners are Spain, France, Italy, China, Saudi Arabia, UK, Germany, US, Netherlands, and India. Its primary imports are crude petroleum, textile fabric, telecommunications equipment, wheat, gas and electricity, transistors, and plastics. Exports consist of clothing and textiles, electric components, inorganic chemicals, transistors, crude minerals, fertilizers, petroleum products, citrus fruits, vegetables, and fish. Morocco’s GDP (Purchasing Power Parity) is $174 billion and is growing at a real rate of 3% with an inflation rate of 1.2%. Morocco ranked 97th out of 185 countries in the World Bank Group’s Ease of Doing Business Ranking.

Click the links below for articles with more information on Franchising in Morocco

Taking Your Brand to the Middle East

Building Goodwill and U.S. Brand Awareness in the Middle East

Expanding Your Brand in the Middle East: A Fresh Perspective

US Commercial Service Market Report Morocco(2009)

African Franchising: Cross-Continental Momentum(2007)

* CPI Scores published by Transparency International and relates to the perceptions of the degree of corruption as seen by business people and country analysts and ranges between 100 (highly clean) and 0 (highly corrupt).

**Ease of Doing Business Rankings determined by the World Bank Group and is ranked out of a possible 185 countries. www.doingbusiness.org

Most recent statistics have been taken from the CIA World Factbook unless noted otherwise.