Marruecos ocupa la quinta posición en el ranking de economías más fuertes de África, según Forbes

Forbes Middle East this week published a report listing the five African countries with the strongest economies on the continent. Nigeria tops the rankings, with a projected GDP of $514.05 billion. In second place is Egypt with an expected GDP of $394.28 billion. South Africa emerges with a GDP of $329.53 billion, giving it third place in the ranking. Fourth and fifth place are occupied respectively by Algeria, with an estimated GDP of $151.46 billion, and Morocco with a projected GDP of $124 billion. 

Forbes magazine bases its analysis on the latest GDP data published by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to assess Africa's economic future by 2021. The economic recovery of African nations depends on many variables, according to the latest Global Prospects and Policies report published by the IMF, not only the COVID-19 crisis, but "also depends on the effectiveness of policies deployed under high uncertainty, which can limit the lasting damage from this unprecedented crisis".

Despite the difficulties that have arisen across the globe, Morocco's economic future remains positive, according to Forbes magazine, thanks to the government's "adequate" performance and "ambitious reforms" that "could lay the foundations for a solid recovery", such as the New Development Model presented on Tuesday, which is committed to the implementation of measures in education, health and other essential sectors of the country.
 
According to IMF data, Morocco's real GDP is expected to grow by 4.5 per cent in 2021, while the 2020 forecast estimated a contraction of 7 per cent. This major change in the African country's forecasts is justified, according to the World Bank, due to the complexity of the past year, affected by a combination of COVID-19 and the country's agricultural crisis.

The fourth position in the Forbes ranking belongs to Algeria, for which a growth of 2.9% is estimated for 2021, thus overcoming last year's 6% recession, in which the pandemic and the price of oil sank the economic forecasts.

The health crisis forced the North African country to close its borders, affecting international trade, which is why, according to Forbes magazine, "a slow pace of economic recovery is expected in 2021 and 2022, amid uncertainties about the duration of the crisis". 

The Algerian government has taken measures to support the country's economy, enacting a Supplementary Financing Law (SFL) on 4 June 2020, which was intended to reduce as much as possible the economic and health impacts caused by the COVID-19 crisis. To this end, $66.86 million was made available for the health sector and the government "provided $150.24 million for subsidies to those unemployed due to the pandemic and $86.39 million for support to poor households", according to Forbes.

The top five countries in the Forbes ranking account for about 58 per cent of Africa's GDP. The IMF estimates that the total GDP of the five countries will grow by 11.8 per cent during 2021, to $1.5 trillion.