Ben Khalfa: “Square Market Traders Are Not Prevented From Opening Currency Exchange Offices”

Responsibility for the creation of currency exchange offices and organizing the process is of the powers of the Bank of Algeria, which will be the only authorized to take decisions in the file, and determine the conditions and criteria for licensees and capital that traders must have, and the profit margin as well, Finance Minister, Abderrahman Ben Khalfa told Echorouk.

“Bank of Algeria is expected to announce, by next week, on additional information regarding the process. Algiers Square Market are not prevented from obtaining the license if they meet the conditions, and the bank will decide about it.”

“Bank of Algeria works independently of the Finance Ministry, and it will be the only decider for the determination of whether the parallel market traders for foreign currency will have licenses to open exchange offices. It will define certain standards like the required capital, and if they meet the necessary conditions and the Bank of Algeria accepts them they will not be excluded from the process.”

“All the work is currently focused by our ministry’s frames to retrieve the parallel market funds, either through the introduction of capital for banks across the generalization of the instrument’s use, which went into effect on July 2015, or the voluntary tax declaration, which was launched on the beginning of August 2015. The process contributed to injecting 135 billion ZDZ (equivalent to 13,500 billion centimes). Government will start, by the beginning of April to sell the public treasury bonds, and will reveal details of the operation on April 12.”

“Sale of the bonds will be in the price of 50,000 ZDZ, and the government had not prepared a certain sum for the amount of money that will be depolarized through the process, that will take place through the banks and the public treasury level. It will be tried initially for a period of two months, that are extendible if it will observe a large demand, while it will be stopped if it will not received broad welcome by the citizens who will be able to acquire the quantity and amounts which they want, according to this new way to finance the economy and projects.”