Trade surplus drops by 8% in first 5 months of 2014

Algeria recorded a trade surplus of USD4.11 billion during the first five months of 2014 against USD4.48 during the same period in 2013, down 8.25 %, said Monday the Algerian Customs.
Algeria’s exports reached USD28.53 billion during the first five months of 2014 against USD28.96 billion during the same period in 2013, down 1.5%, mainly due to a drop of more than 1,5% in hydrocarbon exports,  according to the Algerian Customs’ National Centre of Data Processing and Statistics (CNIS).
Imports amounted USD24.42 billion during the first five months of 2014 against USD24.48 billion during the same period of reference a year earlier, down 0.25%, said the source.
The rate of coverage of imports by exports reached 117% against 118% during the same period of reference, said the source.
The hydrocarbons are Algeria’s main exports with a share of 95.91% of the overall volume of exports, representing USD27.36 billion during the five first months of 2014 against USD28 billion during the same period of 2013, down 2.26%, said the source.