Benkhalfa: “The Public Treasury’s Coffers Contain Reserves For 30 Months Only”

The Finance Minister Abderrahmane Benkhalfa said that “Algeria has reached the threshold of unsustainability in public expenditure”.

Mr Benkhalfa argued that “we need to rationalize expenditure and be efficient and not simply consume credits”, saying it is necessary to promote a funding model oriented toward a creative economy spawning a growth of wealth that will take account of the territorial dimension.

“Today, the challenge is to find alternative sources to 70% losses caused by falling oil prices. Only rely on tax revenues generated by oil is today impossible. We must therefore mobilize all internal resources, especially regular income and informal funds which will be used to finance projects that can bring an added value and clear the way for a return to profit-yielding investments,” said the minister.

In this effort, the minister insisted on accelerating the digitization process of the institutions involved, and the smooth operation of various infrastructures newly constructed, especially the universities, which are expected to contribute to an increased national economic development.

Mr Abderrahmane Benkhalfa however sought to reassure about the country’s the financial position, while addressing “false nightingales selling pessimism”, by referring indubitably to the opposition that has been repeatedly sounding the alarm about the decline of the national economy. 

“A country that is only 8% of external debt, which has 22 months of leeway in coverage and manages a budget of 8,000 billion dinars is not in the throes of a crisis,” the finance minister underlined.

He added: “There are today in the world numerous countries that are in a situation ten times bleaker than that of Algeria, but they are stable and they resist.”

The minister further noted that the price of the market balance for a barrel of oil will be determined by the newly-appointed Governor of the Bank of Algeria, Mohamed Loukal who will have all the powers vested in him in this regard.

For his part, the trade Minister Bakhti Belaib also revealed, in response to a question, from “Echorouk” the drafting of a new list of a set of materials prohibited from import only through a proper license to be delivered by the relevant authorities, stressing that this measure which is aimed at curtailing import expenditures and boosting the local market, will come into force starting from early next year.