São Paulo – Imports by Algeria in the first half this year totalled US$ 19.7 billion, representing growth of 4% over the first six months last year. On the other hand, exports from Algeria totalled US$ 20.7 billion, a 46.5% reduction using the same basis for comparison. The figures were disclosed yesterday (20th) by the Algerian National Information and Statistics Centre.
According to the news website Algérie Presse Service, the reduction in exports led to a decrease in the trade surplus, which fell from US$ 19.75 billion in the first half of 2008 to US$ 1 billion in the first six months this year. It is worth noting that the country’s main export product is oil, which answers to more than 95% of the export basket, and that the price of the commodity is currently around US$ 60, whereas in July last year the figure was US$ 145.
Brazil is one of the countries that increased their sales to Algeria in the first half. In the first six months this year, Brazilian exports to the Arab country totalled US$ 321.57 million, representing growth of 26% over the same period last year. The main items shipped were sugar, beef, soy oil, maize, steel and iron pipes, glass insulators, whole milk and paper.
Brazilian imports from Algeria, which consist basically of oil, petrochemical naphtha and phosphate, went from US$ 1.4 billion in the first half of 2008 to US$ 355.87 million in the first six months this year. The figures were supplied by the Foreign Trade Secretariat of the Brazilian Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
