By Lamine Chikhi
ALGIERS (Reuters) – Algeria will end 2016 with $114 billion of foreign reserves, but its oil and gas earnings will drop to $27.5 billion from $35.7 in 2015 and $60 billion in 2014, Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal told state TV late on Wednesday.
Algeria’s foreign reserves were at $178 billion in 2014.
“Hydrocarbon revenues will reach $27.5 billion in 2016, and $35 billion in 2017, and $45 billion in 2019,” the prime minister forecast.
He also said economic growth would be 3.5 percent in 2016 and 3.9 percent in 2017, with the external debt remaining at $3 billion, or 1.8 percent of gross domestic product.
“I reassure the Algerians that we will not abandon our subsidy system policy,” the prime minister said.
(Reporting by Lamine Chikhi; Editing by Mark Potter)
