Algeria president sacks central bank governor 

Algeria’s President, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, yesterday sacked the country’s central bank chief Rostom Fadli.

The presidency said on Facebook that Tebboune had terminated Fadli’s duties, adding that he had appointed Salah Eddine Taleb as his successor.

Fadli had taken office in June 2020 as the central bank’s interim chief and was later confirmed for the post. Prior to his appointment, he led the country’s Monetary and Credit Council – an independent financial body that monitors Algeria’s monetary policy and banking system.

Algeria was hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic and the subsequent rapid fall in hydrocarbon prices, which made up nearly 20 per cent of its GDP in 2020, down from 28 per cent only four years prior. In 2021, Algeria reduced its trade deficit to less than $1 billion, in sharp contrast to nearly $8 billion a year earlier.

The International Monetary Fund estimates that Algeria’s real GDP growth will increase to 2.4 per cent in 2023.

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