IMF Representative: “Algeria doesn’t need external borrowing from the IMF”

The Deputy Director of the Middle East Department of the International Monetary Fund Central Asia (IMF), Adnan Mazarei, now on a working visit to Algeria has stated that Algeria now doesn’t need to have recourse to external borrowing notably from the IMF.

Referring to the acute oil crisis and the plummeting oil prices, Mr Mazarei explained that this adverse situation is global and doesn’t affect solely Algeria which, he said,  has some leeway to cope with this woeful juncture through a set of remedial restructuring measures.

Mr. Mazarei met with leaders of Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Algeria, as well as with the head of the national businessmen forum (FCE) Ali Haddad in Algiers to make an assessment of Algeria’s current socio-economic situation and to update the IMF data on the Algerian economy.

In its latest annual report on the Algerian economy, the IMF stressed that Algeria was able to cope with the oil crisis, saying that the oil price fall has had so far a limited impact on growth. 

IMF growth forecasts suggest an improvement until 2021 despite the crude price decline that seems to maintain over time. 

In 2015, real GDP (Gross Domestic Product) in Algeria rose 3.9%, according to the IMF which expects growth of 3.4% in 2016 and 2.9% in 2017.

The national economic growth will rebound from 2019 to 3.4% in 2021, according to the same projections. The hydrocarbon sector, which returned to growth in 2014 after two years of contraction, will maintain this upward trend in the next five years, according to the International Monetary Fund estimates.