Preference for cash: Jouahri highlights the importance of “financial culture”

Hibapress

The Wali of Bank Al-Maghrib (BAM), Abdellatif Jouahri, underlined, Tuesday in Rabat, the importance of promoting financial culture to overcome the preference for cash, and thus respond to the problem of cash circulation in the economy.

The promotion of financial culture can be done through the implementation of video capsules in several languages, while targeting populations in isolated areas, said Mr. Jouahri during a press briefing held at the end of the first meeting of the BAM Council for the year 2024.

In this sense, he indicated that currency circulation poses a major challenge because it is experiencing continuous growth, going from around 6% per year to 11% currently.

The Wali also called for the need to implement an in-depth analysis of the different aspects of fiduciary circulation to better understand the underlying factors, including informality, taxation and the criterion of trust.

The BAM Board decided to keep the key rate unchanged at 3%, while continuing to closely monitor developments in the economic situation and inflation.

The Council also noted that banks’ liquidity needs, driven by the expected increase in currency in circulation, should continue to grow, going from 111.4 billion dirhams (billion dirhams) at the end of 2023 to 121.1 billion dirhams at the end of 2023. 2024 and to MAD 143.2 billion at the end of 2025.