"The fundamentals of the national economy are resilient enough to be able to absorb, in the short term, the shocks induced by this crisis," Benchaâboun said in an interview with the latest issue of "L'Economiste" paper.

 "In addition to our foreign exchange reserves, which cover more than five and a half months of imports of goods and services, we benefit from the support of our bilateral and multilateral donors," he said.

 Also, there are other possibilities that can be exploited such as recourse to the international financial market or to the facility offered by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as a precautionary and liquidity line (PLL), Benchaâboun said.

He noted that as soon as the pandemic emerged, Morocco took drastic measures aimed in particular at strengthening health infrastructure, preserving jobs and supporting the purchasing power of vulnerable households.

According to the minister, these choices stem from an important challenge that Morocco has decided to take up, placing humans as a priority, but without losing sight of the imperative of preserving the resilience of economic activity.

The other important point to note is the fact that the behaviour of different sectors of the national economy in the face of the covid-19 crisis is not at all homogeneous, he said, adding that several industries such as the extractive, agro-food and chemical industries, as well as the telecommunications sector and financial services, should maintain their momentum.

"These sectors account for 41% of non-agricultural GDP. If we add public administration, we are at 53% of non-agricultural GDP, which should not suffer much from containment measures," Benchaâboun pointed out.

 However, he noted, there are sectors that are highly impacted, namely tourism and related activities, air transport as well as textiles and automobiles.