“Oil negotiations battle”: Algeria garners one billion dollars during month of January

The decisions of the OPEC conference held in Algiers, at the end of the month of September 2016, and bolstered by the organization’s meeting in Vienna, have allowed Algeria’s Public Treasury to garner more than a billion dollars in a matter of a month of their implementation, with oil exports rising to 1.25 billion dollars, during the month of January 2017.

Algeria’s trade deficit reached USD585 million in January 2017 against a deficit of USD1.82 billion in January 2016, down by 68% between the two periods of comparison, said Monday the Algerian Customs.

The exports increased to USD3.3 billion in January 2017 against USD2.05 billion in January 2016, up by 60.74% corresponding to a rise of USD1.25 billion, said the Algerian Customs’ National Centre of Data Processing and Statistics (CNIS).

The imports have stabilized, reaching USD3.89 billion in January 2017 against USD3.88 billion in the same month a year earlier, up by 0.31%.

The exports covered imports by over 85% in January 2017 against 53% in January 2016, according to the source.

Thanks to the recovery in oil prices which exceeded 55 dollars in January, hydrocarbon exports, representing 94.11% of total exports, reached USD3.11 billion against USD1.97 billion during the same period in 2016, up by USD1.14 billion (+58%).

The non-hydrocarbon exports (5.89% of the total amount of exports) increased to USD195 million against USD88 million (+121.6%).

As part of a new economic strategy, the Algerian government is now striving to develop a new economic plan after its foreign reserves declined US$35 billion last year to US$143 billion, while the fiscal deficit nearly doubled to 16 per cent of GDP on lower hydrocarbon revenues.

“Algeria faces important challenges, with the large decline in oil prices expected to be sustained over the medium term. In response, the authorities have begun to undertake fiscal consolidation and implement selected reforms,” the International Monetary Fund said in a recent report. “These efforts need to be intensified”.

The OPEC member produced 1.11 million barrels per day in February.

In the past, the government paid lip service to economic and social reforms, but a lingering crisis may compel the government to loosen its tight grip on the economy.