Countries

Statistical Snapshot

Algeria has an estimated population of 43.8 million and is characterized by a high urbanization population where 73.7 percent of the population in 2020 lived in urban areas, compared to 60 percent in 2000.[1] This was accompanied with an increase in life expectancy from 70 years to 76.9 years over the last two decades and a drop in under-five mortality rates from 40 to 23.3 per 1,000 births.[2] Human Development Index (HDI) in Algeria was reported at 0.748 in 2019, ranking 91st out of 189 countries, placing it in the high human development category. When adjusted for inequality, the country loses 20.3 percent of its HDI value largely due to inequality in education.[3]

Algeria has almost achieved universal primary education with a primary net enrolment rate of 99.6 percent.[4] Algeria reached gender parity at the primary level while the Gender Parity Index at the tertiary level is 1.4, exceeding the regional average rate of 1.1, in favor of girls.[2] Primary gross enrolment rate reached 107.3 percent in 2019, while the gross enrolment ratio in tertiary education considerably increased from 16 percent in 2000 to 52.5 percent in 2020, also exceeding the regional average of 34.5 percent.[4]

Despite reforms to encourage economic diversification and boost private sector development and foreign investment, the government continues to play a central role. Algeria’s economy highly depends on the hydrocarbons sector, which makes up 94 percent of total exports and 41 percent of government revenues.[5][6]

The drop in global oil prices since 2014 has led to large twin deficits in the fiscal and current accounts. The budget deficit rose to 15.3 percent of GDP in 2015. Owing to significant savings in its hydrocarbon stabilization fund, Algeria managed to cushion the impact of declining oil prices in 2015 and 2016, with economic growth holding up at 3.7 percent and 3.2 percent, respectively. In 2017, the government adopted fiscal consolidation to contain the budget deficit and growth subsequently slowed to 1.4 percent, reaching 0.8 percent in 2019. The budget deficit then improved to 6.5 percent and 4.4 percent in 2017 and 2018 respectively. In 2021, the budget deficit increased to 9.2 percent.[7][8]

Gross government debt has increased significantly since 2014, reaching 26.8 percent of GDP by the end of 2017 and reaching 45.8 percent in 2019. Within the framework of decelerating economic growth, inflation, average consumer prices declined from 6.4 percent in 2016 to 5.6 percent in 2017 and reached 2.4 percent in 2020.[7]

The outbreak of COVID–19 pandemic has led to economic and social turmoil and further constraint in investment and the business climate, and the latter was already suffering according to the World Bank’s 2020 Doing Business report, where Algeria ranks 157th out of 190 countries in terms of the ease of doing business.[2] According to IMF estimates, growth contracted significantly in 2020 to -4.9 percent then it increases to 3.4 in 2021, and gross government debt increased to 55.6 percent in 2020 and 58.5 percent in 2021.[7] According to ILO, unemployment is estimated at 12.8 percent in 2020, but is much higher among youth at 29.7 percent and women at 20.4 percent in 2019.[9]

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the authorities announced in April 2020 several measures to reduce the impact of the health crisis on national enterprises. In September 2021, the measures were extended until the 31^st of December 2021: reduction of the reserve requirement ratio from 8 percent to 6 percent in April 2020, from 6 percent to 3 percent in September 2020, and from 3 percent to 2 percent effective as of February 2021, exempting banks and financial institutions from the urge of building up a safety amount, postpone the payment of loans especially for the clients impacted by the economic situation induced by COVID-19.[10][11]

This overview was last updated in January 2022. Priority is given to the latest available official data published by national statistical offices and/or public institutions.

Sources:
 

[1] Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations Secretariat. 2022. World Population Prospects.2019 Revision [ONLINE] Available at: 
https://population.un.org/wpp/ [Accessed 10 January 2022].
[2] The World Bank. 2022. World Development Indicators. [ONLINE] Available at: https://databank.worldbank.org/source/world-development-indicators [Accessed 10 January 2022].
[3] United Nations Development Programme. 2019. Inequalities in Human Development in the 21^st century. [ONLINE] Available at: http://hdr.undp.org/sites/all/themes/hdr_theme/country-notes/DZA.pdf [Accessed 10 January 2022].

[4] United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). 2022. UNESCO Institute for Statistics. [ONLINE] Available at: http://data.uis.unesco.org/ [Accessed 10 January 2022].
[5] The World Bank. 2021. Algeria Overview. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.worldbank.org/en/country/algeria/overview [Accessed 10 January 2022].
[6] The World Bank. April 2020. Algeria’s Economic Outlook. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/algeria/publication/economic-update-april-2020 [Accessed 10 January 2022].
[7] International Monetary Fund (IMF). October 2021. World Economic Outlook Database. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2020/01/weodata/index.aspx [Accessed 10 January 2022].
[8] International Monetary Fund. 2022. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.imf.org/en/Countries/DZA [Accessed 10 January 2022].
[9] International Labour Organization. 2022. [ONLINE] Available at: https://ilostat.ilo.org/ [Accessed 10 January 2022].
[10] International Monetary Fund (IMF). 2022. Policy Responses to COVID-19. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.imf.org/en/Topics/imf-and-covid19/Policy-Responses-to-COVID-19#L [Accessed 10 January 2022].
[11] Bank of Algeria. 2022. Comité des Opérations de Politique Monétaire (COPM). [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.bank-of-algeria.dz/pdf/communique15032020.pdf ; https://www.bank-of-algeria.dz/pdf/communique30092021.pdf [Accessed 10 January 2022].