Algeria's foreign currency reserves are $4.6 billion at end of June

Official data showed yesterday that Algeria's foreign reserves reached $4.64 billion by the end of June this year, a decrease of $500 million in comparison with its level at the end of March.

The central bank, which released the figures conveyed by the Algerian News Agency, said, "The stagnation is due to the drop in petroleum prices in the international markets in this period of the year, as gas and petroleum form 96% of Algeria's total exports."

The exports' value in the first six months of the year reached $4.51 billion in the comparison to $5.25 billion in the same period of last year.

The bank said the average price of crude oil reached $13.44 per barrel in the first six months of this year till the end of June, in comparison with $14 per barrel in the same period of 1998.

Algeria specified the average price per barrel of petroleum in its 1999 budget as $15.