The Moroccan economy registered growth of 1.3% in 2022, slowing down from the 8% growth registered in 2021, the central bank said late on Saturday.

Abdellatif Jouahri, Governor of Bank Al-Maghrib presented the figures to King Mohammed VI during a reception at the Royal Palace of Tetouan, according to a bank press release.

The Moroccan economy has suffered from a challenging global context and a particularly severe drought, Jouahri explained.

"Despite this adverse economic context and the effort made to ease the impact of prices hike on households and enterprises, the public finance situation continued to recover, with the budget deficit falling to 5.2 percent of GDP", he added.

Morocco's economic growth is forecast increase to 3.6% in 2024 after an expected 3.3% growth this year assuming an average cereals harvest and an increase in exports, the country's statistics agency HCP said earlier this month.

(Reporting by Moaz Abd-Alaziz in Cairo; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Alistair Bell)