Algerian interim President Abdelkader Bensalah signed the 2020 budget, which includes cuts to public spending, while allowing foreign investors to own majority stakes in projects outside the energy sector.
The budget includes a government plan for foreign borrowing next year to try to cope with the financial pressures caused by the decline in the country's vital energy revenues. The 2020 budget also kept subsidies covering various commodities from fuel to basic foodstuffs and medicine unchanged at 8.4 percent of GDP.
Total spending is expected to decline by 9.2 percent, as the government plans to impose more taxes to contain a deficit expected to stand at 7.2 percent. While the economy is expected to grow 1.8% next year, down from an expected 2.6% for 2019, as the protests create an atmosphere of uncertainty for Algerian and foreign investors alike amid government attempts to diversify the resources of the economy dependent on oil and gas.
Source (Arabic cnbc website, Edited)
