Laksaci: Exchange reserves declined to $ 189.75 billion

Reserves of Algeria Central Bank of foreign exchange declined to $189.75 billion by the end of the first half of 2013 to $199.66 billion by the end of 2012, Governor of the Bank of Algeria Laksaci announced on Wednesday.

Laksaci added at a seminar to present the report of the first six months of this year on the Bank of Algeria, that the external debt of the country reached $3.43 billion until the end of the first half of this year, while the total level of the national saving reached $ 77 billion until the end of last June, asserting that these data mean that the country’s external position is comfortable during the first half of this year.

The balance of payments noticed the first deficit of the kind since years, reaching $ 1.2 billion until the end of last June compared to a surplus of $ 10 billion in the end of 2012.

Governor of the Central Bank of Algeria explained that the deficit is considered as an external shock during the current year despite the stability that is recorded by Algeria in the field of foreign direct investment (FDI), which has contributed in reducing the overall deficit in the balance of payments which recorded a deficit of $ 150 million in the first half of the year.

Inflation declined to 6.59% at the end of June compared to 7.29% during the same period of 2012, as the average inflation is expected to decline to 5.5% and 4.5% by the end 2014. 

Annual pace of inflation in Algeria reached 5.9% during August compared to 7.7% during the same period of last year, as it is continuing trend that began since February 2013, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.