ALGIERS, Sept. 17 (Xinhua) -- Algerian Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia on Sunday admitted that the North African nation is facing a difficult financial situation, saying the government will resort to non-traditional financing resources to overcome this crisis.
While presenting the outlines of the government's Plan of Action to the members of the lower house of the Parliament, Ouyahia said non-traditional funding would enable Algeria to come out of the financial crisis within five years.
Ouyahia noted that due to the oil prices plunging in the last three years, "foreign exchange reserves have fallen by half, going from 200 billion dollars in 2014 to nearly 100 dollars billion currently."
Ouyahia specified that the Revenue Regulation Fund (FRR) has been exhausted by last February, saying the only way to preserve trade balance is to maintain the implementation of import licenses policy which the government initiated in 2015.
He further pointed out that the public treasury will never resort to foreign debt, but rather to borrowing from the Central Bank, assuming that such a step would not cause depreciation of the dinar, as claimed by some financial experts.
In this regard, Ouyahia said that "the dinar drops when foreign exchange reserves fall," arguing that the dinar has fallen by 25 to 30 percent in the last three years, although non-traditional financing did not exist.
He specified that Algeria's public debt currently does not exceed 20 percent of GDP, which provides the Treasury comfortable margin for borrowing.
In the same context, the prime minister said that the government maintains public subsidy policy in 2018, while reassuring that the Budget Law of 2018 would introduce no additional taxes.
Politically, Ouyahia admitted that the North African nation is going through impulsive political situation, as he promised to promote "calm democracy" through dialogue with all accredited political parties.
He further pledged to continue the fight against terrorism by strengthening the means of the security forces and fighting all forms of terrorism.
The government's Plan of Action is currently being debated pending approval at the parliament. Once approved, the plan will be ready to be implemented.
