Algerian Dinar Loses 9% of its Value since January 2012

National currency the dinar continues falling against the greenback dollar, during the first six months of this year, as price of exchange for the U.S. dollar reaches, according to figures issued by the Bank of Algeria on Saturday, 79.7 DA per one dollar when bought, up from 73.2 DA when bought buy in January of this year, reaching a sale price of 84.5 DA on last Saturday and 77.6 in January 2012, which shows that the national currency has lost about 9 percent of its value against the country’s main export currency, which is the U.S. dollar, and which is the currency of assessment of 98% of the country’s exports ‭. ‬

The reason for the decline of the national currency against the dollar is due to the gains of the the U.S. currency in recent weeks, against a number of major currencies including the Euro, which went down to the lowest level against the dollar in 21 months, because of the structural crisis that hit the economies of the Euro zone ‭.

As for Algeria, the European currency noticed a cohesion in front of the Algerian dinar over the level of 100 AD per one euro, since the beginning of the year, reaching 107.1 DA per one euro, during last May, before falling again at the level of 105.7 DA per euro on last Saturday.

The Bank of Algeria asserted that the exchange rate of the national currency is “transparent” and responds to the criteria set by the International Monetary Fund, tadding hat Algeria is classified by the International Monetary Fund among the countries that have a floating exchange rate, a policy used since 1996, the date of the suspension of working with the fixed system of rate ‭exchange ‭. ‬

Bank of Algeria refuted the accusations made by the heads of economic institutions, saying that they intervene deliberately to devaluation the dinar against major currencies, in order to reduce the growing import bill from year to year by making the imports’ currency very expensive.