Economic highlights
- Market size: Algeria is the largest country on the African continent and has a population of 43 million (2020), 50% of whom are under 30 years old.
- Gas and oil: Algeria’s economy is still heavily dependent on the hydrocarbon sector, which accounts for 30% of GDP, 60% of tax revenues and 93% of exports.
- Immense potential for renewable energy sources (especially solar, but also wind): despite being a country rich in fossil energy resources, Algeria is beginning to address the issue of ‘energy transition’.
- Growing agriculture: The agricultural sector employs more than 23% of the working population and accounts for 10% of GDP. Upstream of the agri-food industries, there are more than one million farms covering more than 8.5 million hectares of arable land.
- Construction: the country has planned major public investment in infrastructure (roads, motorways, railways, public city transport) and housing.
- Tourist flows: nowadays tourism contributes only 3.6% of GDP, but the Algerian government has set itself the objective of increasing its weight in the economy to 10% by 2030.
Macroeconomic framework
Algeria has an economy that is highly dependent on hydrocarbons (which account for around 30% of GDP, 60% of tax revenues and 93% of exports) and therefore suffered heavily from the collapse of hydrocarbon prices in 2014. This was compounded by the COVID-19 crisis in 2020, accompanied by a new collapse in oil and gas prices. Inflation remains subdued (+4.3% in 2018 and +2% in 2019) and the country is free of foreign debt.