Morocco - Economic sectors

Morocco's economic sectors reflect the diversified and growing base of the economy. Its economy depends on output from the agricultural sector, rich fisheries, growing tourist and manufacturing industries, and a dynamic telecommunications sector.

In 1999, the agricultural sector accounted for 15 percent of the GDP and employed some 50 percent of the

Communications
Country	Newspapers	Radios	TV Sets a	Cable subscribers a	Mobile Phones a	Fax Machines a	Personal Computers a	Internet Hosts b	Internet Users b
	1996	1997	1998	1998	1998	1998	1998	1999	1999
Morocco	26	241	160	N/A	4	0.7	2.5	0.28	50
United States	215	2,146	847	244.3	256	78.4	458.6	1,508.77	74,100
Egypt	40	324	122	N/A	1	0.5	9.1	0.28	200
Algeria	38	241	105	0.0	1	0.2	4.20	0.01	20
a Data are from International Telecommunication Union, World Telecommunication Development Report 1999 and are per 1,000 people.
b Data are from the Internet Software Consortium ( http://www.isc.org ) and are per 10,000 people.
SOURCE: World Bank. World Development Indicators 2000.

labor force. The sector's output varies from one year to another due to its dependence on rainwater for irrigation; in a good year, it can account for 20 percent of total the GDP. The largest contributor to GDP is the services sector. The well-developed tourism and services industries accounted for 52 percent of the GDP and employed 35 percent of the labor force in 1999. The expanding industrial sector has also become a major contributor to GDP in recent years, accounting for 33 percent of the GDP and employing 15 percent of the workforce in 1999. The most important industrial exports are raw phosphates and processed products, including phosphoric acid and fertilizers, but Morocco also exports textiles, clothing, and shoes. Although Morocco is the world's largest exporter of raw and processed phosphates, the phosphates sector overall contributes only 3 percent to the GDP. The fishing sector is also an important sector of the economy, employing some 300,000 people.

Despite its diverse and vibrant economic base, Morocco's economic growth has been sluggish since the mid-1990s, mainly due to its dependence on rain-fed agriculture and other structural problems that affect economic performance, such as bureaucratic red tape and a soaring budget deficit. Recognizing these structural problems, the government has moved to deregulate the telecommunications sectors and to privatize several state-owned companies.