Algeria’s foreign currency reserves fell to just $98bn at end-November, the lowest level since 2007, latest data from the Central Bank reveal. Finance Minister Abderrahmane Raouia estimated in October that they would be $97bn as of end-2017, a projection that will likely be borne out despite crude prices rising by around $10/B over the last three months of 2017.
The country’s finance ministry projects that this rate of decline will ease over the coming years, with reserves stabilizing at around $76bn in 2020. The IMF is considerably more bearish – albeit in forecasts made in July, before the latest oil price rally – projecting a continued slump to just $38bn by end-2022, a level last seen more than 18 years earlier (see chart). (CONTINUED - 703 WORDS)
