Research and consulting in Algeria
Country Overview:
IOA has conducted extensive research and consulting in Algeria, which is Africa’s largest country in terms of physical size. It is also North Africa’s second largest economy behind Egypt. The largely-desert nation finds 77% of its people living in urban areas along the Mediterranean, where transportation ties link them to employment in Europe, and Europeans in return to tourism opportunities in North Africa. Citizens are politically oppressed, with governance dominated by the long-ruling National Liberation Front. Our research has identified relations with neighbouring Morocco as a key security concern, relating to Algiers’s support of an independent Western Sahara, which Morocco claims as its own territory.
Oil reserves provide the nation’s wealth. IOA research finds that fossil fuel products comprise Algeria’s top three export items. Other exports like wheat and sugar are of significantly less value. Trade and cultural ties are also strong with the Middle East, which accounts for an expanded pool of foreign investors interested in the country.
Key opportunities in Algeria:
- Positioning as “the gateway to Europe,” ensures continuing tourism from a key trading partner
- Oil and natural gas reserves represent the country’s largest long-term economic assets
- A diverse transportation system has been expanded with an urban tram system intended to boost public transportation usage
Key concerns/risks in Algeria:
- A slow-down in hydrocarbon products production in 2023 will see a corresponding lessening of economic growth
- An ongoing food crisis that may lead to unrest has exposed the weakness in the domestic agriculture sector and dangerous dependency on imported food products
- Concentration of the fossil fuel sector has skewered investment away from manufacturing, resulting in a need to import basic goods
