Speaking at a meeting of the Productive Sectors Committee at the House of Representatives (lower house), Elalamy assured that according to the Standard & Poor's indicators, markets will return to their pre-Covid-19 levels, noting however a drop in industrial transactions by 20%, against 30% forecast a month ago, as well as in the number of commercial transactions (from 25% to 15%).

Commenting the repercussions of Covid-19 on the national economy and the measures implemented by the ministry to mitigate this impact, the minister underlined that initial indicators reveal a strong negative impact of the spread of the novel coronavirus on the national economic activity (-20% compared to April 2019).

He also noted that the world's car manufacturers have decided to resume their activity in Morocco, thanks to the kingdom's strong competitiveness in this area, while several car factories have been forced to close worldwide, adding that the first companies to have reopened in the sector are in Morocco.

After a first stage that focused on safeguarding the health of citizens, Morocco has started a second stage dedicated mainly to the relaunch of businesses and the revival of the national economy, he said, while highlighting the measures taken by the Economic Monitoring Committee in this regard.

The health emergency period helped to shed the light on several Moroccan competences, the capacity of the Kingdom to adapt to crises and the values ​​of solidarity displayed by economic stakeholders, he said, while commending efforts made by companies, particularly in the food industry, which ensured the supply of the Moroccan market and responded to a demand six times higher in food products, compared to the beginning of the lockdown period.

Regarding industrial Covid-19 hotpots, the minister said that the confirmation of some Covid-19 cases does not mean that the source of the infection is in factories, explaining that these units cannot be Covid-19 hotspots given the strict social distancing and precautionary measures implemented.

Following screening tests carried out in 52% of the factories, only 0.6% were positive, he noted, adding that only one Covid-19 case was recorded out of the 17,000 tests carried out by the General Confederation of Morocco's Enterprises.

The number of tests carried out in the trade and industry sectors is equal to the number of tests carried out outside these two sectors, he pointed out, stressing that infections in factories are ten times lower than the national average.