Algeria loses $20 billion of its revenues due to oil crisis

Algeria lost about $ billion from its oil revenues in the last nine months. Its trade balance had a deficit of $10.33 billion compared to a surplus of around $4.09 billion during the same period in 2014. Imports bill decreased by more than 40 percent. Last year, it reached about $50 billion compared to $29 billion this year.

A report released by the Customs General Department shows that Algeria’s imports bill went down this year by 60 percent to $28.86 billion compared to $48.29 billion last year.

This year, imports was estimated at $39.19 billion compared to $44.2 billion last year. That means that they decreased by 11.34 percent.

In 2015, hydrocarbons constituted 94.56 percent of exports worth $27.29 billion compared to $46.58 billion in 2014. That means they went down by around 45 percent. Algeria lost about $20 billion of its oil revenues due to oil price fall in the international market.

Exports out of hydrocarbons also decreased this year by about 9 percent to $1.57 billion. Of them, semi-industrialized products went down by 7 percent to $1.28 billion and food products by 18 percent to $193 million.

According to the same report, the European Union’s countries remain Algeria’s main partners by 48.51 percent by an overall value estimated at $19.01.

Italy, Spain, the UK and Belgium were Algeria’s major clients in January-September. China remained its first supplier by around $7 billion.