Algeria faces economic crunch as oil and gas revenues fall short | Financial Times

Algeria faces economic crunch as oil and gas revenues fall short | Financial Times:

Weeks of protests in Algeria have revealed popular discontent with Abdelaziz Bouteflika, the ailing president. A less visible threat to Algiers is the looming economic crisis, as revenues from the north African country’s oil and gas exports continue to fall short of its expanding needs, politicians and analysts warn.

“The debate is now focused on politics, but the real iceberg is the risk of an economic crisis in the next couple of years and no one has a strategy to tackle this,” said Riccardo Fabiani, Algeria analyst at Energy Aspects, a London-based consultancy. “Foreign reserves are falling very quickly and they probably have less than two years of import cover left.”

The third-biggest natural gas supplier to Europe, Algeria depends on hydrocarbon exports to bring in more than 95 per cent of foreign currency receipts. Oil and gas revenue in 2018 accounted for an estimated 40 per cent of the budget.