Morocco Fuel Subsidies to Hit Record $5 Billion
Feb 1, 2011
By Emma Farge - Reuters
LONDON, Jan 31 (Reuters) - Morocco will have to pay a record $5 billion in fuel subsidies if oil prices remain near $100 a barrel, a senior energy ministry official said on Monday, which would increase the burden on state finances.
North Africa: Is Morocco Next?
Monday, 31 January 2011 13:11
James Badcock
... Indeed, a number of young people have immolated themselves in a country that bears its share of the regional scourge of high youth unemployment. Among recent Moroccan graduates, joblessness stands at over 25 percent, and it is this collective which makes the most active use of internet and has thus claimed back a power for itself that demographics seemed to have thwarted. In recent years, the young unemployed have regularly demonstrated on the streets and staged other forms of protests – in the main remaining peaceful and being tolerated by the authorities.
Morocco to boost staples subsidies "at any price"
Jan 25, 2011 - Reuters
RABAT, Jan 25 (Reuters) - Morocco, which heavily subsidises food and gas, on Tuesday promised to keep staples affordable at any price even if a surge in global prices of food and oil have a severe impact on its public finances this year.
... Dozens of Moroccans were shot dead by security forces in 1981 after a popular revolt to protest an increase in bread prices, the bloodiest street revolt in the country's modern history.
