Hard Currency Prices In Informal “Square” Exchange Market Out Of Control

The exchange rate of the US dollar rose, on Tuesday, in the “square” market for hard currency in Port Said Square in the capital Algiers, to a historical record level, reaching 205 dinars for sale and 203 dinars for purchase, while the euro price exceeded 215 dinars for sale and 213 dinars for purchase.

The price of the pound sterling during the past hours reached 253 dinars for sale and 250 dinars for purchase, which the market exchangers attributed to the increased demand for hard currency due to the approach of the Hajj or pilgrimage season and the return of air traffic and travel during the past days to the pre-Corona virus stage.

This comes at a time when the Minister of Finance, Abderahmane Raouya, is expected to respond, next Thursday in the People’s National Assembly, to a parliamentary question regarding the sources of supply of the black market in hard currency. The President of the Republic, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, had previously estimated it at $90 billion.

A member of the Finance and Budget Committee of the National People’s Assembly (APN), Abdelkader Beriche, attributes the reason for the sharp rise in hard currency prices in the informal market, whether in the capital or in the rest of the country’s provinces, to the high demand for the acquisition of significant quantities of “hard currency” by those going for Hajj pilgrimage. The schedule of flights, where it is expected that the first delegation will fly towards the Holy places of Islam in Saudi Arabia on June 15 this year – that is, next week.

In a statement to ”Echorouk” , a member of the APN’s Finance Committee believes that one of the reasons for customers rushing to the informal market for hard currency during this period is the return of air and sea transport and the intention of a large number of citizens to travel abroad after two years of closure, and the approach of the summer season, and thus the increase in travel movement , which is one of the most important factors that contributed to the flare-up of the black market and doubled the demand for hard currency in a matter of a few days.

Beriche confirms that the decision of the President of the Republic, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, to open branches of Algerian banks abroad, is one of the steps to drying up the sources of hard currency on the black market, whose customers are known to be pilgrims, merchants and Algerians traveling abroad, whether for study, health treatment, entertainment or vacation, but the ambiguity remains surrounding the source of this supply.

The market is filled with huge amounts of hard currency circulating there by money changers, most of whom work as sellers for the owners of these amounts.

According to ur interlocutor, the Finance Committee of the People’s National Assembly submitted a request to receive the governor of the Bank of Algeria to deal with a number of files, including the informal market and the decision to open exchange offices, which today has turned into more than a necessity in light of the sharp hike in hard currency prices on the black market and the increasing gap between the dinar price in the Bank of Algeria.

Beriche says that the Finance Committee has not yet set an official date for hearing the new governor of the Bank of Algeria, while the former governor has been absent from the parliament for a whole parliamentary year, as he expects the conclusion of the current session at the beginning of next July, which postpones the arrival of the new governor of the Bank of Algeria to Parliament to beginning of the next session.

The latter also confirmed that Raouya is expected to respond on Wednesday to a parliamentary question regarding the “squares” market and the hard currency trading there, and the opening times for exchange offices, which are now more than necessary.