Austerity “hinders” Algeria’s Complementary Finance Act

Algeria’s finance ministry postponed the formulation of the Complementary Finance Act due to the world oil market perturbations. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) advised Algeria and North African countries to slow down their public expenses and reduce support to energy materials.

Echorouk has learnt that the government preferred to take time in formulating the Complementary Finance draft law as it hopes that oil prices would increase. Yet, all the specialized reports say the price will not go up until the end of 2016.

According to the same sources, the law formulation was postponed because Algeria wants to protect its financial situation and to have a good command of its resources and expenses.

The IMF said most of North Africa’s countries including Algeria can not make a balance in their budget if oil barrel price is at $60. It proposes to clean up public expenses by stopping pay raise and reduce support to energy materials.