Market structure — practice question

Morocco’s banking sector has been described as among the strongest in Africa. It contains some of Africa’s biggest commercial banks, yet 3 out of 19 of them dominate over two-thirds of the market. These 3 have expanded mainly by merging, and more mergers among Moroccan banks are likely in future. Banks trade under brand names, choose their own loan interest rates and offer some different services. The biggest banks usually provide loans to large firms. Small and medium sized firms find borrowing harder. More than 60% of the population now use commercial bank services. The share of families opening savings accounts with commercial banks is rising. Moroccan banks now operate branches in 22 African countries and also in several European countries. They are expanding within Morocco too, which is creating more jobs. Morocco has a comparatively high unemployment rate. Fig. 1 shows the unemployment rate in 2015 for several African countries, including Benin, which is relatively poor. Benin has a large labour-intensive, subsistence farming sector. Fig. 1 also includes youth unemployment and population growth. Unemployment levels differ across groups. Youth unemployment is often twice the overall unemployment rate. In Morocco, population is growing faster than new jobs are being created. The increasing unemployment rate is influencing wage rates in the country. As with unemployment, wage rates differ across groups. Older workers, for example, usually receive higher pay than younger workers.