Algeria’s banking sector is characterised by low intermediation and penetration rates, although both have increased dramatically in recent years thanks primarily to ample liquidity stemming from abundant hydrocarbons revenues. The sector’s regulator, the Bank of Algeria (BoA), has licensed 20 banks – including six public banks that essentially...
Hydrocarbons activity is the single most important industry in Algeria, accounting for approximately 60% of government revenues and 95% of total exports. The fall in oil prices since mid-2014 of more than 50% had a negative impact on the country’s finances and resulted in a halving of earnings from hydrocarbons exports. Concerns have been...
Hydrocarbons wealth has underwritten Algeria’s growth for decades, allowing the country to accumulate huge foreign currency reserves and underwrite a major public spending campaign over the past 10 years. Thanks to high oil and gas prices, the government has been able to fund infrastructure and social programmes, including subsidies, helping...
As well as holding the 10th-largest gas reserves in the world, Algeria is also the top natural gas producer in Africa, with a total of 83.3bn cu metres (bcm) in 2014. Hydrocarbons have been one of the main drivers behind the country’s economic development, and according to the IMF they account for around 95% of Algeria’s export earnings,...
While the state remains a major player in the Algerian economy, recent years have seen an impetus towards the sale of stakes in public enterprises. In the mid-2000s the government had plans to privatise a majority stake in the state-owned bank Crédit Populaire Algérie (CPA) and a minority holding in fixed-line telecoms operator Algérie Telecom...
The Algerian government, with the backing of foreign donors, has been making efforts to develop the country’s small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). There are around 900,000 SMEs and, in October 2015, Rabea Kherfi, secretary-general of the Ministry of Industry and Mines, told media that the failure rate of companies in the segment had...
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