Algeria is maintaining an expansionary fiscal policy in 2015 despite the collapse of oil prices by more than half since July. The cabinet drew up the 2015 budget in August, when oil prices were still relatively high and parliament subsequently approved it on 29 October, without any amendments to reflect the crash in oil prices, which accelerated after the end-November OPEC meeting.
Algeria’s 2015 budget law projects a rise in real terms of 12.3% in expenditure to AD8,858bn ($112.1bn ) and an increase of 7.8% in revenue to AD4,685bn ($59.3bn), with a resulting deficit of AD4,173bn ($52.8bn), or 22.1% of GDP, an increase of 17.8% on the 2014 deficit (see table). The budget law projects an overall GDP growth rate of 3.4% to AD18,191bn ($230.2bn) in 2015, with the non-oil GDP rising by 4.25%, compared to an overall growth rate of 4.5% projected for 2014. (CONTINUED - 1372 WORDS)
