Foreign trade figures of Algeria

Foreign Trade in Figures

Algeria has an open economy in which foreign trade represents 44% of GDP (World Bank).  Natural gas and petroleum products account for nearly all exports: in 2023, hydrocarbons covered 90.8% of the total volume of exports
Algeria's non-hydrocarbon exports are dominated by four categories: semi-finished products, foodstuffs, electricity, and raw materials. Non-hydrocarbon exports fell to USD 5.05 billion in 2023, down from USD 5.9 billion in the previous fiscal year. According to the Bank of Algeria, this decline amounts to USD 919 million, or –15.4%. The largest share belongs to semi-finished products, particularly fertilizers, accounting for 78.6% of non-hydrocarbon exports, with a value of USD 3.97 billion in 2023. Food exports, representing 8.5% of non-hydrocarbon exports, surged from USD 269 million in 2022 to USD 428 million in 2023, a 59.1% increase (+USD 159 million), driven mainly by sugar. As per imports, the main product groups were food products (23.1%), industrial equipment (23%), semi-finished products (22.6%), and consumer goods (15% - data Bank of Algeria).

Data from the French Ministry of the Economy show that France was the third-largest customer of Algeria in 2022 (latest data available), accounting for 10.5% of the total, behind Italy (32.3%) and Spain (12%); whereas China was the top supplier with a market share of 18.6%, followed by France (14%) and Italy (7.7%). To boost its foreign trade, Algeria signed several trade agreements, as well as ratifying the Agreement on the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) in 2019 in Accra, Ghana. The agreement allows interested states to benefit from the progressive elimination of tariff barriers for a period of five years from its entry into force in July 2020. The agreement aims to free African states from dependence on the extraction of raw materials and promote inter-African trade.

While the trade balance was historically positive, the surplus has vanished completely since late 2012 and the country has had a trade deficit since 2014. This reduction was due to a sharp fall in hydrocarbon exports. Incomes have also decreased drastically with the fall of oil prices. Nevertheless, such a trend reversed in 2021 thanks to the uptick in energy prices and it improved further in 2022-23 as Algeria benefited from the consequences of the EU sanctions towards Russia, which led to an increase in European hydrocarbon imports from Algeria. Data from the World Bank shows that the country’s trade balance was positive by an estimated 3.6% of GDP in 2023. In the same year, exports of goods totalled USD 51.8 billion (-21.1% y-o-y due to lower hydrocarbon prices); whereas imports grew by +7.6%, at USD 41.8 billion. In terms of services, the country exported the equivalent of USD 3.6 billion and imported USD 8.5 billion (data WTO). According to preliminary figures from the ONS, in the first semester of 2024, import volumes increased at a much higher pace than those of exports (+14.4% and +0.8%, respectively). The decline in hydrocarbon prices (-5.5%) and non-hydrocarbon prices (-10.3%) led to an overall 6.0% drop in export prices in the same period. Meanwhile, import prices also fell by 6.9%.