ABSTRACT
Algeria is the largest African country, the centre of Arab presence in North Africa, and a country endowed with a strategic location and remarkable national wealth. It has a GDP purchasing power estimated in 2011 at $264.1 thousand million and an accumulated foreign reserve of $173 thousand million (Table 9.1). 1 Algeria's economy is classified as less performing, with low growth and high unemployment rates, in spite of the country being endowed with plenty of national wealth that includes oil, natural gas, phosphates, iron, uranium, zinc, agriculture, small industries, a skilled labour force and an educated population. Decades of economic mismanagement, inefficient public and private sectors, corruption, civil war and continued domestic instability have wrecked Algeria's economy.
