After meeting for an ordinary Council on Thursday, the members of the Bank of Algeria Committee produced a report made public on Sunday. The said press release reports positive figures as a balance sheet for the first quarter of 2023. Indeed, foreign exchange reserves have increased since the end of the previous year. An increase which can be explained by certain measures initiated by the Government, according to the same source.
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Increase in Algeria’s foreign exchange reserves: positive balances and recorded surpluses
According to a statement from the Bank of Algeria, the country’s foreign exchange reserves have jumped since the end of 2022. Thus, we have gone from 60.99 billion dollars at the end of December 2022 to $66.14 billion in March 2023.
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The current account of the Treasury recorded, at the end of last month, a positive balance of 1788.31 billion dinars, nearly half of which (833.73 billion) is placed in the FRR (Revenue Regulation Fund). In addition to that, the Bank of Algeria records a nice surplus of 4.5 billion dollars on the balance of the balance of payments.
In the same vein, the Bank of Algeria has decided the increase in the reserve requirement ratio and strengthen bilateral liquidity reversals. The new reserve rate will drop from April 15 to 3%, against the usual 1%.
The bank liquidity rate on the rise in 2023 in Algeria
Foreign exchange reserves are not the only ones to experience positive growth this year. In its press release, the Bank of Algeria reveals that bank liquidity has increased within 3 months. The latter therefore goes from 1,996.41 billion dinars in December 2022 to 2,475.817 billion dinars in March 2023. This increase is due to the growth in export earnings, recently amplified by ministerial order.
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On the other hand, loans to the economy experienced more moderate growth. We are therefore moving from a growth rate of 3.27% at the end of 2022 to 0.64% at the end of February 2023.
To conclude, the Committee affirms that it will ensure regular monitoring of the main economic indicators and that it “remains attentive to the short-term development of macroeconomic indicators and their outlook, particularly that of inflation”.
