El BERD duplica sus inversiones en Marruecos en un año marcado por los temores de recesión
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has doubled its investments in Morocco in a year marked by the Russian invasion of Ukraine and fears of a global recession.
The pessimism reflected in economic indicators has not deterred this financial institution, founded in 1991 "to create a new post-Cold War era in Central and Eastern Europe", they explain on their website, from redoubling its financial support to the Alawite kingdom.
The EBRD claims to have injected more than 530 million euros into the Moroccan economy, some .800 million dirhams in a total of 14 projects. The EBRD stresses that there has been a record investment of 360 million dirhams in the private sector. The other 170 million dirhams were earmarked for the "green economy".
This is a considerable increase compared to the 211 million euros injected by the EBRD the previous year, some 2.3 billion dirhams. In addition, the development bank notes that 58 per cent of all investments "had a gender and inclusion focus".
The bank co-financed the repowering of the Koudia Al Baida wind farm, operational since 2000, with a principal loan of EUR 44 million, invested a MAD 1 billion issue by the city of Agadir, extended an additional EUR 100 million in financing for the construction of the Nador West Med (NWM) port and provided a technical cooperation package worth EUR 1 million to assess NWM's potential role in the hydrogen value chain, it said in a press release.
The bank also developed a total of 88 consultancy projects for SMEs. Most of the companies that received its services operate in the regions outside the cities of Rabat and Casablanca.
It also held its first annual General Assembly under the slogan 'Responding to challenges in a turbulent world'. Some 12,000 companies have gone bankrupt in recent months as a result of the global crisis, 17% more than in 2021, according to the Inforisk portal.
The EBRD has not only increased investments in Morocco. In 2022, it made a record €2.4 billion in new investments in 50 projects, continuing its support for the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean (SEMED) region, which also includes Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon, as well as the West Bank and Gaza.