APS :TUESDAY 22 MAY 2018
ALGIERS – Algeria’s trade deficit amounted to $ 856 million in the past four months of 2018, against $3.878 billion during the same period of 2017. Deficit thus plummeted by nearly 78%, the Customs’ services told APS.
Exports rose to $14.368 billion from January to end April 2018 against $12.117 billion in the same period of 2017, up by 18.6%, said the Customs’ National Centre for Data Processing and Statistics (CNIS).
Regarding the imports, they slightly dropped to $15.224 billion against $15.995 billion during the same period of reference, down by 4.82%.
Exports have covered up to 94% of imports. Last year coverage rate was of 76%.
Hydrocarbons still make up the bulk of the Algerian stales abroad (93.71% of exports’ total amount), standing at $13.45 billion against $11.42 billion, up $2.03 billion (+17.8%).
Still marginal, the non-hydrocarbon exports were $917 million in the past four months of 2018 (6.3% of the total exports), even if they rose by 31.75% compared to the last period of 2017.
Ther non-hydrocarbon exports were composed of semi-finished products with $701 million (against $522 million), food products with $137 million (against $122 million), raw products with $42 million (against $26 million), industrial capital goods with $25 million (against $21 million) and non-food consumer goods with $12 million (against $5 million).
===Italy, Algeria’s first customer ===
Italy becomes Algeria’s top client, replacing Spain which was in that position in the first two months of 2018.
Algeria’s top five customers were Italy with $1.92 billion (13.4% of Algeria’s total exports), followed by Spain with $1.74 billion (12.1%), France with $1.6 billion (11.1%), the United States with $1.4 billion (10%) and Great Britain with $827 million (5.7%).
As for Algeria’s main suppliers, China is still at the top of the list with $2.3 billion (15.13% of Algeria’s total imports), followed by France with $1.55 billion (10.2%), from Italy with $1.22 billion (8%), Spain with $1.17 billion (7.7%) and Germany with $1.12 billion (7.4%).
