The Performance of Social Welfare Programs in Morocco: Successive Reforms, Oblivious to Eventual Social Impacts

The present paper aims to analyze Moroccos performance in terms of social welfare programs when it comes to mitigating the repercussions of many large scale reforms that consecutively took place in the last few years, as well as assessing the impacts of such reforms that would eventually generate a rise in price levels of fuel and other basic goods, thus causing a serious deterioration of the purchasing power and social conditions of low income households. Failing to implement effective accompanying measures in favor of vulnerable social classes, cutting energy subsidies, adopting a new foreign exchange rate regime, and undergoing the consequences of emerging international geopolitical tensions such as Irans new sanctions jeopardizing petroleum price levels on international markets, are all very important factors to take into consideration when anticipating the establishment of necessary measures to successfully avoid social stress, anticipate drastic price jumps and fully seize the advantages offered by these policy changes that the country is going through in its attempts to reinvent a new economic model that would guarantee sustainable growth, social well being and shield Morocco from agitating shocks.