Karim Djoudi: “The government is poised to draft exhaustive list of needy citizens”
Finance Minister, Karim Djoudi, said that the inflation rate in Algeria was still under control in spite of the hike in the invoice of public expenditures stemming from the subsidy allotted by the state for staple commodities.
- The Finance Minister however acknowledged the fact that the public authorities were facing manifold hurdles in their endeavour to work out lists of poor and destitute citizens who are in dire need of the help of the state.
- He indicated to this effect that such lists were being minutely drafted by the national solidarity Ministerial department.
- Replying to questions by deputies at the national popular Assembly on Tuesday after having debated on the complementary draft law of finance for 2011, Karim Djoudi stressed that the preservation of the citizens’ purchasing power was among the paramount objectives of the state’s budgetary policy.
- In this connection, he recalled that the Algerian state was still subsidizing several large consumption food products with the aim of facing up to the constant erosion of the Algerians’ purchasing power including milk powder, wheat, sugar and cooking oil.
- With regard to the freezing of the association accord with the European Union and the delay recorded in the adhesion to the free exchange zone, the Finance Minister explained that these measures enforced of late by the Algerian authorities were essentially designed to protect national production and to diversify Algeria’s economy.