According to Prime Minister Aïmene Benabderrahmane, Algerian non-hydrocarbon exports reached an annual increase of 42%, compared to last year during the same period.
Presenting the Government’s General Policy Statement to the members of the National People’s Assembly (APN) during a plenary session on Monday, the Prime Minister indicated that “exports excluding hydrocarbons recorded a significant increase of 42%, from 2.61 billion USD at the end of August 2021, to almost 4 billion USD at the end of August 2022”.
“At the end of August 2022, the trade balance recorded a surplus of nearly USD 14 billion, compared to a deficit of USD 862 million during the same period of 2021”, said the Prime Minister, recalling that this deficit had reached 10, USD 6 billion in 2020.
The balance of payments also recorded a surplus of around 9.1 billion Usd, against a deficit of 4.4 billion Usd during the same period in 2021, according to the Prime Minister.
“Algeria has worked, in 2021, to resume economic activity after a significant drop recorded in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic”, he pointed out, noting that “The Algerian economy thus experienced, in 2021, a catch-up effect characterized by the economic growth of +4.7%”.
He pointed out, in the same context, that the consumer price index (CPI) “recorded an increase of +7.2% at the end of 2021, against +2.4% at the end of 2020”, explaining that “this inflation is mainly driven by food products (+10.1%) and manufactured goods (+6.3%)”.
This increase comes in the wake of an increase in inflation levels at the international level caused by the successive shocks that the world has experienced over the past two years, the inflation rate has settled at 7.8% in April 2022 and 10% in September 2022 in Europe, rates not reached since 2008.
These high levels of inflation “are the result of soaring commodity and food prices, disruption of supply chains and rising freight costs, factors that have increased fierce competition in these products, especially since this situation has had an impact on the food and health security of countries,” explained the Prime Minister.
Addressing the financial situation, the Prime Minister affirmed that the government “has focused its efforts in 2021 on maintaining the stability of the main macroeconomic indicators, and reducing internal and external imbalances”.
In this regard, budget revenue for the 2021 financial year increased by +15.5%, and budget expenditure by +7.6%, he said.
