Algeria’s foreign currency reserves down $6bn

Over the last six months, Algeria’s foreign exchange reserves have decreased by $6 billion, reaching $108 billion, Algeria Press Service (APS) reported yesterday, quoting the Governor of the Bank of Algeria, Mohamed Loukal.

“Algeria’s foreign exchange reserves are currently $108 billion,” Loukal said on the sidelines of the Africa Meeting of the Econometric Society.

In late December 2016, Algeria’s foreign exchange reserves stood at $114.1 billion, up from $121.9 billion at the end of September of the same year.

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Algeria’s foreign reserves began to decline in the second half of 2014 due to a sharp drop in oil prices in the international markets.

Over the course of the last three years, starting mid-2014 until June 2017, Algeria had lost $86 billion of its foreign exchange reserves, which were estimated at $194 billion at the time.