COFACE: Algeria has the note B with a risk “low enough” to … – Zonebourse.com

The French Insurance Company for Foreign Trade ( Coface ) classified Algeria to class B with a risk “low enough” in the medium term trading.

Listed since 2009 on the category A4, Algeria fell one notch to September 2015 to January 2016, due to the “low price” of oil that continues to “weigh on Algerian activity in 2016,” said the Coface in its analysis published in the symposium “risk countries in 2016″ held yesterday at Paris . Note B For countries whose economic and financial outlook which present uncertainties and the business environment may have a “significant deficiencies” with reliability and availability of corporate balance sheets “highly variable” and a recovery claims “often difficult.”
Three other African countries are in the same category B: South Africa, who lost a point due to half-mast growth and increasing social tensions, Tunisia , which represents a “moderate risk”, and Senegal with a “high risk” in the medium term.
Among the countries in other regions included in this category, we find Italy, Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania, Turkey, Kazakhstan The Sri Lanka and Vietnam . Russia, Brazil, Argentina, Egypt, the Angola , Serbia and Gabon were credited for their part, the note C (below), which concerns countries whose economic and financial outlook is” uncertain “.
Among the “highlights” of Algeria that Coface highlights, there are significant oil reserves and gas potential in the fields of renewable energy and tourism, and external financial situation “solid” with a “very low” external debt and “significant” foreign exchange reserves. Regarding the “weaknesses” of the country, the French credit insurance agency lists the “high dependency” hydrocarbons, unemployment rates “high”, “excessive” weight of the public sector bureaucracy, weak financial sector environment “problematic” cases.
In its assessment of risk in Algeria, Coface also found that the difficulties encountered in the hydrocarbon sector, due the “lack of competitiveness” and “obsolescence” of productive capital, “suggest that if the situation in the oil market continues, it would continue to observe the negative performance in 2016″. The report states that the Algerian state “should continue to support economic activity, although its fiscal space are becoming more limited.”
But the large foreign exchange reserves available to Algeria and low public debt “have enabled the authorities to face the shock induced by the drop in hydrocarbon prices 2014 2015″ , raises the Coface , which emphasizes that the “cast” of foreign exchange reserves and the reduction by half of the revenue stabilization fund in 2015 ” limit funding prospects 2016 lead to an increase in the estimated public debt at 30%. ” Having reviewed the provisions and measures taken by the Algerian government on the economic front, the Coface notes, moreover, that if the security situation “appears to be relatively improved,” the activism of terrorist groups and instability “have intensified the Tunisian and Malian borders.” Globally, the Coface said in its report that caution was necessary for the evolution of country risk in 2016.

(c) 2016 Horizons Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info) source Middle East & amp. North African Newspapers – French