Substantial Decline of Trade Deficit in 2018

Algeria’s trade deficit stood at $5.03 billion in 2018, against $10.87 billion in 2017, down by 5.84 billion (-53.73%), Customs told APS.

In 2018, the exports jumped to $41.168 billion against $35.191 billion in 2017, up by $5.977 billion (+16.98%), said the National Centre of Transmissions and Information System of Customs (Cntsid) in provisional data.

The imports, as for imports, were $46.197 billion in 2018 against $46.059 billion in 2017, up by $138 million (+0.3%).

The exports ensured the coverage of imports at a rate of 89% against 76% in the same period of 2017.

The hydrocarbons still accounted for the bulk of Algerian sales abroad (93.13% of the total amount of exports), estimated at $38.338 billion compared to $33.261 billion in 2017, up $ 5.077 billion (+15.26%).

As for the minus hydrocarbons exports, they remained marginal, accounting for only 6.87% of the total amount of exports, i.e. $ 2.83 billion, despite a 46.63% rise compared to 2017.

The minus hydrocarbon exports were composed of semi-finished products $2.24 billion in 2018 against $1.41 billion in 2017 (+59%), food products with $373 million against $349 million (+ 6.88%), gross products with $92 million against $73 million (+ 26.03%), industrial capital goods with $90 million against $78 million (+ 15.4%), non-food consumer goods with $33 million against $20 million (+65%) and agricultural capital goods with $0.30 million against 0.29 million.

==Imports: Slight increase of food import bill, decrease of fuel bill == Concerning the imports, the bill for fuel and lubricants (including fuels in particular) significantly decreased to US $ 1.015 billion in 2018 compared to US $ 1.992 billion in 2017, down US $ 977 million (-49.05%), said the Customs.

The imports of agricultural and industrial capital goods and semi-finished products also fell in 2018.

Thus, the import bill for agricultural capital goods stood at $563 million in 2018 against $611 million in 2017 (-7.86%).

The import bill of industrial capital goods was $ 13.43 billion against $13.99 billion (-4.02%).

Algeria also imported for $10.96 billion, worth semi-finished products, against $10.98 billion (-0.24%). Moreover, the import bill increased for food products, raw materials and non-food consumer goods.

The food import bill was $8.573 billion $ against $8.438 billion $ (+1.6%). That of the gross products hit $ 1.898 billion, compared to $ 1.527 billion (+24.3%).

The non-food consumer goods’ imports reached $9.75 billion against $8.511 billion (+14.63%).

With regard to the import financing method, 59.56% of the total imports, i.e. $ 27.52 billion were paid in cash (out of $46.197). $ 16.9 billion worth of imports (36.6%) have been financed through credit lines, while the remaining imports (US $ 1.767 billion, 3.82%) were financed using other means of payment and importers' own currency accounts funded US $ 7 million (0.02%).

= Italy still Algeria’s top customer in 2018, China its largest supplier = Regarding Algeria's commercial partners in 2018, Italy remained the country's leading customer, while China also remained the largest supplier.

Algeria's top five client countries were Italy with $6.127 billion (14.9% of Algeria's total exports), followed by Spain with $5 billion (12.15%), France with $4.6 billion (11.25%), the United States with $3.86 billion (9.4%) and Great Britain with $2.8 billion $ (6.7%).

As for the top five supplier countries, China ranks first with $7.85 billion (17% of Algeria's total imports), followed by France with $4.78 billion (10.35%), Italy with $3.65 billion (7.91%), Spain with $3.53 billion (7.65%) and Germany with $3.18 billion (6.88%).