After postponing the announcement of the currency's liberalization, Prime Minister Saadeddine El Othmani stated earlier this week that the step needs to be studied further, Reuters reports. On Friday, the Central Bank postponed in a statement the announcement of the liberalization of Morocco's currency. The date of the step which is a reform package strongly suggested by the International Monetary Fund was supposed to be revealed on Thursday 29th of June. A few days later and during an interview broadcasted on AlAoula and 2M national TV channels, Prime Minister declared that the Moroccan government needs to «further study» the liberalization plan. El Othmani also stated, according to the same source, that he met with the Minister of Finance, Mohammed Boussaid and the Central Bank Governor, Abdellatif Jouahri to examine the process of floating insisting that «the decision will be made at the right time». Fearing a potential devaluation, economic operators and banks rushed into converting their assets into hard currencies resulting in a potential future crisis that could affect the process taken by the Moroccan Central bank. As a response, Abdellatif Jouahri, stated during the Central bank's board meeting organized on 20th of June that «the date of the first phase of the plan to liberalize the Dirham currency will start by the end of June but the reform program does not include devaluation». «I will hold a press conference with the Minister of Finance by the end of June to announce the date for the first phase», Jouahri indicated adding that «provoking a devaluation of the Dirham prior to floating the currency would be counterproductive».
