MEKNES, Morocco, April 25 (Reuters) – Morocco’s wheat
harvest should stand at around 3 million tonnes this year,
including 2 million tonnes of soft wheat, down sharply from a
year earlier, the head of the country’s agriculture industry
group said on Wednesday.

This would mean that wheat imports may rise by 50 percent
from their level during the ongoing import calendar year, which
starts in June and ends in May of the following year. Bread and
semolina are the staples for Morocco’s 34-million population.

RABAT, April 24 (Reuters) – Morocco’s prime minister has hit
out at courtiers around King Mohammed in rare criticism that
could signify the start of a confrontation between the
Islamist-led government and powerful figures close to the
palace.

Moroccan authorities, under pressure from the “Arab Spring”
upheavals elsewhere in the region, held early elections last
year which for the first time handed power to the opposition PJD
party of moderate Islamists.

RABAT (Reuters) – Morocco’s plans to introduce a law this year to regulate strikes will test the Islamist-led government’s ability to carry out reforms to modernize an economy that is badly in need of foreign investment.

The North African country averaged a strike a day last year, the highest number in a decade, often paralyzing public services and leading to the loss of more than 300,000 working days, a near threefold rise from 2010, official figures show.

AGADIR, Morocco, April 19 (Reuters) – Demand for fertilisers
from the poorly-fed African continent is on the rise but still
has some way to go before crop yields rise to levels that can
significantly cut reliance on food imports, delegates to a
fertilisers conference said on Thursday.

The United Nations predicts the continent’s population will
double over the next four decades to almost 2 billion, spurring
a more rapid rise in demand for staples, such as rice and
cereals.

RABAT (Reuters) – Morocco expects its 2012 tourism receipts to at least match last year’s as it relies on a growing focus on eastern European and Middle Eastern markets to mitigate any decline in tourist arrivals from the euro zone, the tourism minister said.

Tourism has been the main pillar of economic growth plans for the past decade. It is now Morocco’s biggest source of foreign currency — key to keeping the country’s fragile balance of payments afloat — and at once the second-biggest employer and contributor to Gross Domestic Product GDP.L.

RABAT, April 18 (Reuters) – Morocco’s plans to introduce a
law this year to regulate strikes will test the Islamist-led
government’s ability to carry out reforms to modernize an
economy that is badly in need of foreign investment.

The North African country averaged a strike a day last year,
the highest number in a decade, often paralysing public services
and leading to the loss of more than 300,000 working days, a
near threefold rise from 2010, official figures show.

RABAT, April 12 (Reuters) – Morocco’s parliament on
Wednesday passed the 2012 budget that targets a deficit below 5
percent and subjects corporates and alcohol to higher taxes as
the government seeks to reduce wide social inequalities and tame
protests over unemployment.

The budget won 166 votes out of 230 present at the session
in the 395-member parliament, the official MAP news agency said.

RABAT, April 9 (Reuters) – Morocco’s government has agreed
to amendments from parliament to widen the imposition of a new
tax on firms to help it develop poor areas and help quash
grumbling discontent over social inequalities, officials said on
Monday.

Plans for the so-called solidarity fund tax were announced
in the midst of mass protests last year in Morocco that were
inspired by the Arab Spring revolts.

RABAT, March 31 (Reuters) – An investment holding firm
controlled by Morocco’s royal family on Saturday posted a 50
percent rise in its net profit helped mostly by higher earnings
from banking, mining, steel and sugar affiliates active mostly
in the domestic market.

National Investment Co., or SNI, made a net consolidated
profit of 4.3 billion dirhams ($513 million) in 2011 versus 2.9
billion dirhams in 2010 in comparable terms, showed financial
statements published in pro-establishment newspaper Le Matin.

RABAT (Reuters) – A Moroccan rapper was charged on Friday with insulting public authorities in a song that was posted on YouTube, at the start of a trial criticised by his supporters as a new attempt to muzzle an outspoken critic of the monarchy.

The court, in Casablanca, adjourned the trial of Mouad Belrhouat, known as El-Haqed or “The Sullen One”, to April 4 and refused him bail, his lawyer Hatim Bekkar said.