00:00Hello and welcome to your daily economic news.
00:10We start in Morocco, where the tourism sector continues its good performance.
00:151.3 million is the number of arrivals at the border post in April 2024.
00:21According to the Ministry of Tourism, Crafts and Social and Solidarity Economy,
00:25it is an increase of 17% compared to the same month of the previous year.
00:30This remarkable growth is a positive dynamic that is strengthening
00:36and concerns both foreign tourists at an increase of 15%
00:40and Moroccans living abroad at an improvement of 20%.
00:44In the first four months of the year,
00:46Morocco recorded 4.5 million arrivals at the border post,
00:51an increase of 14% compared to late April 2023,
00:55which represents more than 567,000 additional arrivals,
01:00specifies the Ministry of Tourism.
01:02Still in line with tourism,
01:05Morocco has placed itself at the head of foreign destinations
01:08for passengers leaving France in April
01:12according to Mr. Fly's barometer for tourist eco.
01:16This performance is supported by a drop in ticket prices of 8% compared to the previous year.
01:23Spain is second in the ranking and ahead of Tunisia, which is followed by Italy.
01:29These destinations have also recorded price and ranking variations compared to the year 2023.
01:35In national news, the cost of bank loans is constantly rising.
01:40The results of the Bank Al-Marrib survey on debt rates in the first quarter of 2024
01:47are indeed an increase of the global average rate of 5.40%.
01:52It went from 5.03% in the first quarter of 2023,
01:57to 5.26% in the second quarter,
02:01then to 5.36% in the third and fourth quarters of the previous year.
02:07The Bank Al-Marrib survey first concerned consumer loans,
02:13whose average rate went from 7.18% in the last quarter of 2023
02:18to 7.22% in the first quarter of the current year.
02:22Equipment loans have also been affected,
02:26with an increasing rate of 4.91% to 5.13% over the same period.
02:34In international economic news,
02:37Microsoft will invest 4 billion euros in the development of data centers in France.
02:44The investment aims to strengthen its infrastructure in artificial intelligence and the cloud,
02:50announced by the American computer giant.
02:53A new Microsoft data center must be set up in eastern France,
02:58while existing sites in the Paris region and near Marseille will be expanded.
03:04These specialized buildings contain the essential computer servers
03:09for the proper functioning of cloud and artificial intelligence technologies,
03:13very greedy in energy.
03:14They will be equipped with latest generation processes
03:17with a capacity of up to 25,000 units of graphical processing per year
03:22in order to power France's cloud and artificial intelligence services.
03:27At the forefront of international economic news is also the Emirates Group,
03:32based in Dubai and owner of the most important airline in the Middle East,
03:37has announced a record annual profit of $5.1 billion,
03:43an increase of 71% compared to the previous year.
03:47The Gulf Emirates' flagship has thus placed the bar very high
03:50by achieving a new record performance on exercise 2023-2024,
03:55congratulated the company in a statement,
03:59underlining the strong demand for air transport and services related to travel around the world.
04:05Now heading to China, which will sell a first batch of state bonds in the long term this week.
04:11The announcement was made by the Ministry of Finance.
04:14As part of a sale of more than $130 billion in debt,
04:19the government will begin to issue bonds at 30 next Friday,
04:24according to an opinion published by the Ministry of Health.
04:28Other 20-year and 50-year bonds will be put up for sale respectively on May 24 and June 14,
04:36while the Ministry of Finance has not specified the number of bonds to be issued.
04:42Note that the volatility of the real estate market and the high unemployment rate,
04:46especially among young people, are among the government's main concerns
04:51regarding the Chinese economy.
04:54Beijing has set a target of about 5% growth in gross domestic product this year,
05:01a figure considered ambitious by many economists.
05:05This is the end of our edition today.
05:07Good luck with the programs on our antenna.
