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Saturday, December 26, 2009

Algeria injects $150 bln to stimulate national economy

By Fatiha Zamamoush
Friday, 25 December 2009

Algerian minister of finance Karim Djoudi asserted on Friday that Algerian government devised a USD 150 billion blueprint to support and revitalize the economy over the coming five years.

Answering a question by the Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) on the sidelines of a conference organized by the Economic and Social National Council in the Algerain capital, Djoudi said that Algerian president Abdulaziz Bouteflika has approved a blueprint to recover the economy, support the investment, finalize the infrastructure like bridges, roads, railways, dams and power plants.

Algerian finance minister has asserted that the blueprint which will last up to 2014 targets providing 3 million job opportunities and 2 million apartments in order to put an end to the unemployment and housing crisis in the country. Further, the blueprint will meet the needs of the Algerians in the fields of health, education, water and energy.

Djoudi went on to say that Algerian president Abdulaziz Bouteflika has issued strict instructions to the government to be rational in implementing the economic support program in the next five years.

He also asserted that there is a relative improvement in a number of the economic sectors in Algeria like agriculture, small and medium institutions and services compared with a weak growth of the oil sector due to reducing the output quotas to comply with the OPEC's decisions. Djoudi asserted that the inflation percentage in Algeria reached about 4.4 during 2008 and 2009. Djoudi admitted that Algeria did not come unharmed out of repercussions of the global financial crisis due to a retreat in the oil products and fall in the oil barrel price to about USD 53 during the first two quarters of 2009 after reaching some USD 100 throughout 2008.

Algerian top financial official stressed that measures taken by the Algerian president throughout this decade have enabled the country to sort out the crisis and continue the accelerated pace of development, thanks to the public revenues collected.

The Algerian official added, in this context, that Algeria's revenues of oil products exceeded USD 35 billion till the end of last October, while it totaled USD 79 in 2008.

The Algerian imports saw a relative stability during the first two quarters of this year after registering a considerable growth between 2005 and 2008 as they reached USD 38 billion last year.

Djoudi said that banking reserves reached USD 144 billion at the end of June 2009 and remained stable in July 2009, while it made USD 143 billion at the end of 2008.

On the external debts, the Algerian finance minister said that the Algerian government expects them to reach about USD 3.9 billion in the short and long run.

Algeria has recently managed to repay USD 16 billion of its debts and stop its resorting to external loans, besides taking all necessary measures to reduce the increase in imports.

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