That projected dollar amount results from a 54.1% advance compared to $37.1 billion for 2019.
Year over year, the overall value of goods exported from Algeria shrank by -13.8% compared to $66.2 billion starting in 2022.
Based on the average exchange rate for 2023, Algeria’s legal currency is the Algerian dinar which depreciated by -13.8% against the US dollar since 2019 but appreciated by 4.3% from 2022 to 2023. The weaker Algerian local currency compared to 2019 made Algeria’s exports paid for in stronger US dollars relatively lesser expensive for international buyers.
Algeria’s Major Trading Partners
Based on the latest available data from 2017, 81.7% of products exported from Algeria were bought by importers in: Italy (16% of its global total), France (12.6%), Spain (11.7%), United States of America (9.9%), Brazil (6%), Netherlands (5.4%), Turkey (5.2%), United Kingdom (4.6%), Portugal (2.7%), Belgium (2.6%), South Korea (2.5%) and India (also 2.5%).
From a continental perspective, 58.2% of Algeria’s exports by value were delivered to European countries while 17.1% were sold to importers in Asia. Algeria shipped another 11.8% worth of goods to North America.
Smaller percentages went to Latin America (7.2%) excluding Mexico but including the Caribbean, Africa (5.3%) then Oceania (0.5%) mostly Australia.
Given Algeria’s population of 46 million people, its total $57.1 billion in 2023 exports translates to roughly $1,200 for every resident in the northern African country. That dollar metric lags the average $1,400 per capita one year earlier during 2022.
Algeria’s Top 10 Exports
The following export product groups represent the highest dollar value in Algerian global shipments during 2023. Also shown is the percentage share each export category represents in terms of overall exports from Algeria.
- Mineral fuels including oil: US$52 billion (91.1% of total exports)
- Fertilizers: $1.4 billion (2.4%)
- Iron, steel: $1.1 billion (1.9%)
- Inorganic chemicals: $868.8 million (1.5%)
- Salt, sulphur, stone, cement: $763.8 million (1.3%)
- Sugar, sugar confectionery: $187.7 million (0.3%)
- Fruits, nuts: $132.6 million (0.2%)
- Machinery including computers: $66.8 million (0.1%)
- Fish: $49.4 million (0.1%)
- Glass: $45.7 million (0.1%)
Algeria’s top 10 export categories generated 99.2% of the overall value of its global shipments.
Fish represents the fastest grower among the top 10 export categories, up by 19.8% from 2022 to 2023.
In second place for improving export sales was sugar including confectionary made with sugar via a 17.3% advance.
Algeria’s shipments of the metals iron and steel posted the third-fastest gain in value, up by 4.3%.
The severest decliners among Algeria’s top 10 export categories were inorganic chemicals (down -46.1% year-over-year, glass (down -46%) then fertilizers (down -41.6%).
The above listed product categories are at the two-digit Harmonized Tariff System (HTS) code level.
Drilling down to the more granular four-digit HTS codes, Algeria’s top 5 most valuable exported products in 2023 were petroleum gases (48.3% of the Algerian total), crude oil (28%), refined petroleum oils (14.4%), nitrogenous fertilizers (2.4%), and hydraulic cements (0.9%).
Collectively, that quintet of major products represents 93.9% of the overall value of Algerian exports. Such a high percentage shows Algeria’s highly concentrated portfolio of exports.
Products Creating Best Algeria’s Trade Surpluses
Algeria earned an estimated US$17.9 billion surplus for all products traded during 2023, dropping by -40.7% from $30.2 billion in black ink one year earlier in 2022.
The following types of Algerian product shipments represent positive net exports or a trade balance surplus. Investopedia defines net exports as the value of a country’s total exports minus the value of its total imports.
In a nutshell, net exports represent the amount by which foreign spending on a home country’s goods or services exceeds or lags the home country’s spending on foreign goods or services..
- Mineral fuels including oil: US$51.5 billion (Down by -12% since 2022)
- Fertilizers: $1.2 billion (Down by -46.1%)
- Inorganic chemicals: $674.2 million (Down by -52%)
- Salt, sulphur, stone, cement: $648.7 million (Down by -15.2%)
- Iron, steel: $63.9 million (Reversing a -$20.6 million deficit)
- Lead: $23.9 million (Up by 61.9%)
- Fish: $14.6 million (Up by 55.3%)
- Cork, articles of cork: $12.9 million (Up by 3.1%)
- Raw hides, skins not furskins, leather: $10.4 million (Down by -30.6%)
- Beverages, spirits, vinegar: $8.6 million (Reversing a -$9.9 million deficit)
Algeria has positive net exports in the international trade of petroleum gases and petroleum oils. In turn, these cashflows indicate Algeria’s strong competitive advantages under the mineral fuels including oil product category.
Products Causing Largest Algeria’s Trade Deficits
Below are exports from Algeria that result in negative net exports or product trade balance deficits. These negative net exports reveal product categories where foreign spending on home country Algeria’s goods trail Algerian importer spending on foreign products.
- Machinery including computers: -US$5.4 billion (Up by 42.5% since 2022)
- Vehicles: -$3.4 billion (Up by 90%)
- Cereals: -$3.1 billion (Down by -19.4%)
- Electrical machinery, equipment: -$2.4 billion (Up by 36.5%)
- Plastics, plastic articles: -$1.8 billion (Down by -31.3%)
- Pharmaceuticals: -$1.5 billion (Up by 17.1%)
- Dairy, eggs, honey: -$1.4 billion (Down by -21.2%)
- Articles of iron or steel: -$1.2 billion (Up by 0.7%)
- Oil seeds: -$1 billion (Down by -3.7%)
- Animal/vegetable fats, oils, waxes: -$842.4 million (Down by -8.8%)
Algeria maintains highly negative net exports and therefore deep international trade deficits under the machinery including computers product category.
Algerian Export Companies
Not one Algerian corporation ranks among Forbes Global 2000.
Wikipedia lists exports-related companies from Algeria. Selected examples are shown below.
- Asmidal (chemicals)
- Cevital (food, glass, home appliances)
- Hamoud Boualem (soft drinks)
- Naftal (oil equipment, services)
- Saidal (pharmaceuticals)
- Sonatrach (oil, gas)
In macroeconomic terms, Algeria’s total exported goods represent 7.9% of its overall Gross Domestic Product for 2023 ($722.6 billion valued in Purchasing Power Parity US dollars). That 7.9% for exports to overall GDP in PPP for 2023 compares to 11.1% for 2022. Those percentages suggest a relatively decreasing reliance on products sold on international markets for Algeria’s total economic performance, albeit based on a short timeframe.
Another key indicator of a country’s economic performance is its unemployment rate. Algeria’s unemployment rate averaged 12.25% at December 31, 2023, down from 12.49% one year earlier according to YCharts metrics.
Algeria’s capital city is Algiers.
See also South Africa’s Top 10 Exports, Kenya’s Top 10 Exports, Ghana’s Top 10 Exports, Mozambique’s Top 10 Exports and Egypt’s Top 10 Exports
Research Sources:
Central Intelligence Agency, The World Factbook Africa: Algeria. Accessed on September 7, 2024
FlagPictures.org, Flag of Algeria. Accessed on September 7, 2024
Forbes Global 2000 rankings, The World’s Biggest Public Companies. Accessed on September 7, 2024
International Monetary Fund, Exchange Rates selected indicators (Domestic Currency per U.S. dollar, period average). Accessed on September 7, 2024
International Monetary Fund, World Economic Outlook Database (GDP based on Purchasing Power Parity). Accessed on September 7, 2024
International Trade Centre, Trade Map. Accessed on September 7, 2024
Investopedia, Net Exports Definition. Accessed on September 7, 2024
Wikipedia, Algeria. Accessed on September 7, 2024
Wikipedia, Gross domestic product. Accessed on September 7, 2024
Wikipedia, List of Companies of Algeria. Accessed on September 7, 2024
Wikipedia, Purchasing power parity. Accessed on September 7, 2024