Algeria’s government has completed investments worth $30 billion last year, sourced largely from the budget or via bank financing, according to Prime Minister of Algeria, Ahmed Ouyahia.
Ouyahia said in a press conference earlier this week that the self-financed investments in various sectors were valued at $15 billion in 2017, while the total expenditure of the state-funded investments reached $20.8 billion. Banks contributed $8.6 billion across 1,835 projects in 2017.
The foreign investments in the North African country amounted to $2.5 billion in 2017. The National Agency to support youth employment has financed 4,406 projects spending around $200 million.
The Algerian government lifted the freeze of over 1,500 projects, spending more than $2.4 billion. Those projects were distributed over various sectors including higher education, health, national educating and water resources.
Algeria recorded 2.2% economic growth rate in 2017, compared to 3.5% in 2016. Meanwhile the inflation rate went down from 6.4% in 2016 to 5.5% by the end of last year.
The prime minister indicated that 563,000 job opportunities have been created last year, while 8 new electricity plants were finished, along with 52 projects in energy sector with cost reaching $1.4 billion.
The Algerian economy is expected to recover this year as oil prices edge up from around $55 per barrel a year ago to the range of $70 today. The Algerian exports increased to $3.4 billion in January 2018, compared to $2.98 billion in January 2017.
