Algiers – Algeria’s foreign exchange reserves amount to roughly USD 108 billion right now, Bank of Algeria governor Mohamed Loukal said this Thursday (29) during an African econometrics summit set to end next Saturday in Algiers. The information was made public by Algérie Presse Service (APS).
Algeria had USD 114.1 billion in forex reserves by the end of last year, down from USD 121.9 billion at the end of the preceding quarter. After major back-to-back hikes, Algeria’s reserves began to slide as of 2014, driven by the oil price slump and rising imports, APS said. The country is basically an exporter of oil and gas and their products.
Algeria’s reserves peaked at USD 195 billion at the end of March 2014, after climbing non-stop year-on-year since 2006.
Despite the stemmed currency influx, Loukal recently said reserves are being managed “safely.” Algeria’s president Abdelaziz Bouteflika insisted that the country’s “economic sovereignty must be preserved,” and that the government must “strive to avert external indebtedness and to keep goods and services imports in check so as to preserve its foreign exchange reserves.”
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
