Brussels, 22/11/2013 (Agence Europe) - The EU has confirmed its position as Algeria's leading trading partner, according to figures for the first nine months of 2013, the Algerian national ICT and statistics centre (CNIS) indicates. Algeria conducts 59.48% of its external trade (US$90.82 billion) with the EU but 96.47% of EU purchases from Algeria are made up of hydrocarbons.
Algerian imports from the EU reached nearly US$21.50 billion, i.e. over 52% of the country's total imports, up 15.7% compared to the same period in 2012. Exports other than hydrocarbons still remain marginal being only 3.53% of the total volume of exports and, according to data available, show a decline of nearly 23% compared to the month of October 2012.
Figures for October 2013 show that Spain is Algeria's main client (18.34%) followed by Italy (15.55%) and France (10.02%). The three European countries are overtaken by China among the suppliers of Algeria. China becomes its main supplier with (according to October 2013 figures) 13.81% of its imports, followed by France (12.29%), Italy (10.38%) and Spain (9.92%). (FB/transl.jl)