Algeria oil exports plunge 45% through May

Algeria’s oil export revenue plunged 45.5 percent in the first five months of 2015, throwing the balance of trade into the red, customs figures showed Tuesday.

Oil exports, which account for more than 95 percent of all sales abroad, were $14.91 billion (13.31 billion euros), against $27.35 billion a year earlier, APS news agency said quoting customs statistics.

That sent the trade balance into a deficit of $6.38 billion from a surplus of $3.44 billion.

The decline in revenues resulted from a sharp drop in the oil price.

Overall, Algerian exports totalled $15.94 billion, a decline of 43.7 percent, while imports fell 10.22 percent to $22.33 billion.

The North African country’s main customers were Spain, the Netherlands, Italy, France and Britain.