Algeria’s current account balance fell to −8.8% of GDP in 2025.

Higher is better. A higher balance means the country earns more from the rest of the world than it spends there, which builds foreign assets and reduces reliance on lenders. A negative balance means the opposite. Algeria's balance was −8.8% of GDP in 2025, down from −1.1% of GDP a year earlier, a swing of 7.7 percentage points. Since 2016 the range has run from −14.5% of GDP in 2016 to 8.6% of GDP in 2022, so the latest figure sits in the lower part of that span.

Why it matters. A deficit of −8.8% of GDP means Algeria is paying abroad more than it receives, and the difference has to come from foreign borrowing or from drawing down foreign assets. For the state, that raises the cost of keeping up imports and public spending. For households and firms, a persistent gap can bring pressure on the currency and on the price and availability of imported goods. The 2022 surplus of 8.6% of GDP shows how quickly the position has changed within a few years.