Waning Algeria

Hit hard by the oil-price collapse, Algeria’s energy sector and economy are struggling with political inertia, giving investors little to cheer

ALGERIA is high on the list of those energy producers regretting their failure to reduce oil and gas dependency when global prices were at their height. Today, in the opinion of the IMF, the Algerian economy is "facing a severe and likely long-lasting external shock". The collapse in oil prices "has exposed longstanding vulnerabilities in a state-led economy that is overly dependent on hydrocarbons". The period of low global oil prices has deeply hurt the country. Hard currency reserves stand at $106bn, according to government figures, down from $143bn at the end of 2015 and $192bn in 2013. But all is not lost, the IMF says, for public debt is below 10% of GDP and so Algeria has "a window of