Algeria signed a second agreement with the United States Monday (November 13th) for the early payment of $620m, completing the repayment of $1.2 billion of total debt, Finance Minister Mourad Medelci said at a plenary session on the 2007 draft budget. He added that a similar agreement with Germany for early debt payment of $372m will be signed by the end of the week, completing the repayment of Algeria's $7.9 billion debt to the Paris Club.
Boosted by the high price of crude oil, hydrocarbons exports replenished Algeria's foreign reserves, expected to reach $70 billion at the end of the year. The reserves were used to repay Algeria's external debt earlier than had been scheduled. Debt stock declined from $15.5 billion at the beginning of this year to less than 7 billion, or 4% of gross domestic product and 12% of export earnings projected for this year.
Between 2000 and the end of October, Algeria refunded a total of $12.1 billion in external debt to the Paris Club, London Club and multilateral institutions, and obtained cancellation of $4.73m debt to Russia in a weapons purchasing deal.
APS, Algiers