(Ecofin Agency) - Over the first three quarters of 2017, Algeria’s trade deficit has contracted to $8.14 billion, the country’s national centre for statistics and IT (CNIS) revealed last Sunday, quoted by Xinhua. This is close to 38% down compared to 2016, when this gap stood at $13.11 billion. According to the institution which is attached to the Algerian customs office, this slump is mainly due to a strategy to cut imports and the slight increase in oil prices, recorded since the beginning of the year.

In detail, over the period reviewed, Algeria’s exports rose by 18.2%, reaching $25.79 billion, against $21.82 billion the year before, over the same period. Imports, for their part, slumped, as a result of restrictive measures put in place by authorities, to $33.92 billion, down 2.9%. 94.66% of exports were oil exports valued at $24.41 billion, thus 19% more than during the previous year.

Since 2014 when oil prices started falling, Algeria’s economic situation has been quite difficult. Truly, the crisis pushed the country’s foreign exchange reserves down, from $194 billion in 2013 to $178 billion the following year, then to $143 billion and $118 billion, in 2015 and 2016 respectively. At the end of December 2018, they should slump further, standing below $85.2 billion, and more even to $76.2 billion, by the end of 2020, according to official forecasts.

In 2016, Algeria has recorded a deficit of $17.84 billion against $13.71 billion in 2015, after recording a surplus of $4.306 billion in 2014. In 2016 again, the country exported for $27.1 billion of oil and gas, against $32.69 billion a year earlier, thus 17.12% less. In 2014 however, oil and gas exports generated $60.304 billion, thus 40.76% more than in 2015.

To preserve foreign exchange reserves against a drastic drop, the Central Bank of Algeria has set out last Sunday, a number of measures aiming at making importation more complex.

Fiacre E. Kakpo