• 3 minutes e-car sales collapse
  • 6 minutes America Is Exceptional in Its Political Divide
  • 11 minutes Perovskites, a ‘dirt cheap’ alternative to silicon, just got a lot more efficient
  • 51 mins GREEN NEW DEAL = BLIZZARD OF LIES
  • 4 hours How Far Have We Really Gotten With Alternative Energy
  • 6 hours If hydrogen is the answer, you're asking the wrong question
  • 4 days Oil Stocks, Market Direction, Bitcoin, Minerals, Gold, Silver - Technical Trading <--- Chris Vermeulen & Gareth Soloway weigh in
  • 5 days The European Union is exceptional in its political divide. Examples are apparent in Hungary, Slovakia, Sweden, Netherlands, Belarus, Ireland, etc.
  • 18 hours Biden's $2 trillion Plan for Insfrastructure and Jobs
  • 4 days "What’s In Store For Europe In 2023?" By the CIA (aka RFE/RL as a ruse to deceive readers)
Gold Prices Soar Past $2,150 After Bullish Rally

Gold Prices Soar Past $2,150 After Bullish Rally

Precious metal prices experienced a…

Algeria Set To Cut Gas, Electricity Subsidies

OPEC member Algeria plans to reduce subsidies for electricity and domestic gas next year in order to cut government spending and strengthen its economy.

The OPEC producer, which pumps just below 1 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude and is a major exporter of natural gas to Europe, is looking to cut its spending on subsidies, estimated at $17 billion in 2020, Bloomberg reports.

Algeria’s authorities plan to cut subsidies for electricity, cooking oil, domestic gas, and flour as part of a draft 2022 budget, according to Bloomberg.

Some new taxes are also planned for next year in a bid to increase state revenues. Direct payments will replace the subsidy cuts to protect the most vulnerable households.

Algeria’s budget draft for next year comes a week after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said that the country had “urgent need for a recalibration of economic policies.”

The pandemic and the oil price crash hit the Algerian economy hard in 2020, with the real gross domestic product (GDP) sharply down by 4.9 percent, the IMF at the end of a consultation mission in Algeria last week. The country’s fiscal and external deficits continued to widen in 2020, while international reserves, albeit still adequate, fell to $48.2 billion at the end of 2020 from $62.8 billion in 2019, the fund said.

Algeria’s economy is set to grow by 3 percent this year, thanks to higher oil and gas prices and production, the IMF noted.

“Indeed, despite the rebound in economic activity and the significant improvement in the external balance in 2021, it remains urgent to restore macroeconomic stability and policy space, while protecting the most vulnerable and supporting the recovery,” the fund’s economists said.

ADVERTISEMENT

“The mission recommends a comprehensive and coherent package of fiscal, monetary, and exchange rate policies to reduce Algeria’s vulnerabilities,” the IMF said.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:



Join the discussion | Back to homepage



Leave a comment

Leave a comment

EXXON Mobil -0.35
Open57.81 Trading Vol.6.96M Previous Vol.241.7B
BUY 57.15
Sell 57.00
Oilprice - The No. 1 Source for Oil & Energy News