Algeria: 25% of budget allocated to defence

Algeria has maintained its defence budget for a third year in a row despite the current financial crisis with an overall expenditure of $10 billion.

Despite the financial crisis in Algeria provoked by the low level of revenues in the oil sector which accounts for more than 95 per cent of the country’s foreign exchange flows, 24.4 per cent of the operating budget of the Algerian state was allocated to defence.

The money used will be spent on maintaining the army and purchasing equipment and armament. The Ministry of the Interior and local authorities has also seen its budget grow by seven per cent. The education sector, generally one of the best funded, came in second place with a 2018 budget allocated of nearly $7 billion, down by five per cent compared to 2017.

As part of the introduced reforms, the Algerian state has decided to reduce its imports by $10 billion, the Minister of Commerce, Mohamed Benmeradi, confirmed this week.

Read: Current economic system in Algeria ‘fragile’ and ‘unsustainable’

“The government proposes to implement voluntary safeguard measures aimed at steering imports downward from a global import bill of $41 billion in 2017 to $30 billion in 2018,” the minister told a trade panel held at the University of Curriculum for Excellence (CFE).

According to the minister, some 20 products accounted for 50 per cent of Algeria’s imports over the last ten years. In addition, the suspension of imports of goods will be under the “protection of domestic production”.