Xifres de comerç exterior d'Algèria

Foreign Trade in Figures

Algeria has an open economy in which foreign trade represents 39% of GDP (World Bank, 2025). Natural gas and petroleum products account for nearly all exports: according to Comtrade (2024, latest detailed data available), petroleum gas made up 47.9% of total exports, crude oil 27.4%, and refined petroleum products 16.1%, followed by nitrogen fertilizers (1.8%). Imports were led by food products: wheat (6.3%), milk and cream (3.0%), sugar and maize (2.5% each), and iron ores (2.2%).

In 2024, Algeria's first customer was Italy (24.0% of total exports), ahead of France (14.6%), Spain (12.3%), Türkiye (6.7%), and the United States (5.0%); whereas China was the top supplier with a market share of 22.3%, followed by Italy (6.7%), France (6.6%), Brazil (6.4%), and Türkiye (5.4% - data Comtrade). To boost its foreign trade, Algeria signed several trade agreements, as well as ratifying the Agreement on the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) in 2019 in Accra, Ghana. The agreement allows interested states to benefit from the progressive elimination of tariff barriers for a period of five years from its entry into force in July 2020. The agreement aims to free African states from dependence on the extraction of raw materials and promote inter-African trade.

While the trade balance was historically positive, the surplus has vanished completely since late 2012 and the country has had a trade deficit since 2014. This reduction was due to a sharp fall in hydrocarbon exports. Incomes have also decreased drastically with the fall of oil prices. Nevertheless, such a trend reversed in 2021 thanks to the uptick in energy prices and it improved further in 2022-23 as Algeria benefited from the consequences of the EU sanctions towards Russia, which led to an increase in European hydrocarbon imports from Algeria. Data from the World Bank shows that the country’s trade balance was negative by an estimated 5.3% of GDP in 2025 (from -0.4% one year earlier). In the same year, exports of goods totalled USD 45.4 billion (-7.5% y-o-y); whereas imports grew by +10.5%, at USD 50.1 billion. In terms of services, the country exported the equivalent of USD 4.2 billion and imported USD 9.1 billion in 2024 (data WTO).