Africa Economy

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) predominate among Algerian firms, forming the backbone of the private sector. At end-2016 Algeria’s 1m SMEs employed more than 2.5m people and engaged in some AD75bn ($622.1m) in bilateral trade. According to the Ministry of Industry, Algeria created an average of 60,000 SMEs per year in the 2012-15...

The collapse in oil prices has weighed heavily on the Algerian economy, giving rise to wide twin deficits in the budget and current account. Given that the state is still heavily involved in the non-hydrocarbons sector of the economy, but depends on hydrocarbons exports for the bulk of its revenues, it is unsurprising that efforts to close the...

Given that Algeria’s hydrocarbons sector accounted for more than half of government revenues in 2014, it is hardly surprising that the collapse in oil prices from 2014 onward has hit public finances. From 8% of GDP in 2014, the deficit ballooned to 15.8% in 2015, before moderating to an estimated 14% in 2016. Algeria was able to postpone the...

With an area of 2.38m sq km, Algeria became the largest country in Africa when the Republic of South Sudan gained its independence from Sudan in 2011. Located in the Maghreb region of North Africa, it has a Mediterranean coastline of just under 1000 km and land borders with seven countries and territories – Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco,...