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Fighting Inflation and Building Resilience: The Outlook for MENA and Morocco

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28
10:30 am April 2023
Add to Calendar 2023-04-28 10:30:00 2024-10-04 03:14:20 Fighting Inflation and Building Resilience: The Outlook for MENA and Morocco Description Location Policy Center Policy Center Africa/Casablanca public

Location : Policy Center for The New South- Rabat    

The Policy Center for the New South (PCNS) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are organizing a closed-door experts roundtable at the PCNS under the theme " Fighting Inflation and Building Resilience: The Outlook for MENA and Morocco" taking place on April 28th from 10h30 to 12h30.

The MENA region faces mounting challenges and risks, stemming primarily from the risk of entrenched inflation, elevated public debt amid tighter-for-longer financing conditions, and high structural unemployment. Policy trade-offs are even more complex, and policymakers will need to calibrate the policy mix carefully to reduce core inflation without triggering financial stress and excessive tightening and continue to provide targeted fiscal support to vulnerable groups while preserving debt sustainability and financial stability.

The aim of this roundtable, composed of around 15 experts, is to discuss the challenges and risks faced by the MENA region and the policy trade-offs the policymakers need to consider in order to address them effectively. The main speaker is Dr. Jihad Azour, director of the IMF's Department for the Middle East and Central Asia. His intervention will be followed by a discussion.

Agenda

10:30 –11:00

Welcoming coffee 

11:00-11:10   

Opening remarks

Karim El Aynaoui, Executive President, Policy Center for The New South

11:10-11:30

Fighting Inflation and Building Resilience: The Outlook for MENA and Morocco

Moderator:

- Mounia Boucetta, Senior Fellow, Policy Center for the New South

Speaker:

- Jihad Azour, director of the IMF's Department for the Middle East and Central Asia

11:30-12:30

Discussion

12:30-13:30

Lunch

 

Speakers
Jihad Azour
Director of the IMF's Department for the Middle East and Central Asia
Jihad Azour is the Director of the Middle East and Central Asia Department at the International Monetary Fund where he oversees the Fund’s work in the Middle East, North Africa, Central Asia and Caucasus. Mr. Azour served as Lebanon’s Finance Minister in 2005-08, during which time he coordinated the implementation of important reforms, including modernizing the country’s tax and customs systems. Before and since his time as finance minister, he held a wide range of positions in the private sector, including McKinsey and Booz and Co. where he was a Vice-President and Senior Executive Advisor. Prior to joining the IMF in March 2017, he was a Managing Partner at investment firm Inventis Partners. Mr. Azour holds a PhD in International Finance and a post-graduate degree in Inter ...
Mounia Boucetta
Senior Fellow
Senior Fellow at the Policy Center for the New South, Mounia Boucetta has over 20 years of experience in public administration, holding numerous managerial and leadership roles, and working particularly on the development of industrial and commercial policies. She was most recently Secretary of State to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of Morocco from 2017 to 2019.   A graduate from the prestigious Mohammadia School of Engineers (Morocco), Mounia Boucetta joined the Ministry of Industry and Trade in 1991 where she held numerous positions before her appointment as its Secretary General in 2010. In this context, she contributed to numerous projects including, but not limited to, reorganizational projects, implementation of sectoral strategies, inve ...
Karim El Aynaoui
Executive President
Karim El Aynaoui is Executive President of the Policy Center for the New South. He is also Executive Vice-President of Mohammed VI Polytechnic University and Dean of its Humanities, Economics and Social Sciences Cluster.   Karim El Aynaoui is an economist. From 2005 to 2012, he worked at the Central Bank of Morocco where he held the position of Director of Economics, Statistics, and International Relations. At the Central Bank of Morocco, he was in charge of the Research Department and equally a member of the Governor’s Cabinet. Previously, he worked for eight years at the World Bank as an Economist for its regional units of the Middle East and North Africa and Africa.   Karim El Aynaoui has published books and journal articles on macroeconomic issues in developing countr ...