Algeria Jan-May Trade Deficit Up 35.5%
OPEC member Algeria's trade deficit reached $9.8 billion in the first five months of 2016, a 35.5 percent rise from the same period a year earlier, due to a decline in energy earnings after the oil price slide, official data showed on Monday.
Oil and gas exports, which accounted for 93 percent of Algeria's total exports, dropped 37 percent to $9.13 billion in the January-May period, according to customs figures.
The value of overall exports during the period declined 36.2 percent year-on-year to $9.82 billion, the figures showed.
World oil prices declined by more than half since June 2014 as oil output increased while growth in demand slowed. Algeria has been working through measures, from import restrictions to a local bond issue, to counter the loss in energy revenues.
(Reporting by Hamid Ould Ahmed)
