Algerian Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia revealed Saturday that the country’s reserve of foreign monetary dropped to less than USD80 billion.
In a news conference concluding the 6th cycle of the National Council of the Democratic National Rally, he said: “unfortunately, foreign monetary reserves dropped to less than USD80 billion (around USD79.80 billion)”.
End of November, Algeria’s reserves of foreign monetary reached USD82.12 billion compared to USD97.33 billion end of 2017. Financial pressures increased during the past years in Algeria with the drop in global oil prices since the second half of 2014.
The occurrences in the global energy markets reflected the country’s reserves of foreign monetary that declined sharply from USD192 billion in 2014 to USD108 billion mid-2017.
Oil and gas account for 60 percent of the budget and 94 percent of total exports revenue. The North African country also increased state spending for 2018 by 25 percent after a 14 percent cut in 2017.
The government expects the economy to expand by 2.6 percent this year due to a 1.5 percent reduction in spending and lower energy revenue projection. Oil and gas earnings should reach USD33.2 billion, down from the USD34.37 billion target for 2018, because of growing domestic consumption.
The government is benefiting from a recovery in global crude oil prices but a large proportion of energy revenue is still being used to pay for goods imports due to poor domestic production.
