#Algeria : With a tourist endowment of 85 euros per person per year, the Algerians have no choice but to resort to the parallel market to obtain the necessary currencies for their stays abroad. As a result, with the start of the reopening of borders, currency prices are soaring.
Only, to travel you need to have foreign currency. However, the tourist endowment in Algeria fell to a historically low level, because of the level of the negligible amount but which, in addition, suffered the impact of the depreciation of the dinar against foreign currencies. Thus, the 15,000 dinars of the tourist endowment granted annually to each Algerian citizen is now worth 85 euros per person per year, according to the rate of the Central Bank.
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As a result, to travel, Algerians are forced to resort to the parallel exchange market. Thus, for the past few weeks, the Square Port-Said has regained its colors with an increasingly large influx of Algerians who wish to obtain foreign currency to prepare for their trip. Because of the derisory amount of the tourist endowment, the Algerians therefore have no choice but to resort to the parallel market to obtain the necessary currencies to meet the costs of living abroad. The tourist endowment only allows, in the best of cases, to pay for the taxi fare from the airport to the place of accommodation.
At the level of the official market, you have to pay 159 dinars for 1 euro and 140 dinars for 1 dollar. Only, on this one the Algerian can therefore only obtain a maximum of 85 euros per year.
The law of supply and demand fully playing its role, prices on the parallel market, which is in fact the real barometer of exchange in Algeria, soar. Thus, the euro is exchanged against 217 dinars for purchase and 218 dinars for sale. As for the American dollar, very popular in recent weeks, it has risen sharply and you have to pay 195 dinars to buy and 193 dinars to sell.
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And that’s just the beginning. The courses will flare up more as the borders open to Algerians who are for the moment, for example, still placed on France’s orange list, one of the main destinations for Algerian nationals.
By way of comparison, in Morocco, since January 2022, the tourist endowment has gone from 45,000 dirhams (4,208 euros) to 100,000 dirhams, or 9,351.43 euros, per year and per person. In addition, Moroccan citizens benefit from an additional allowance equivalent to 30% of income tax with a ceiling of 300,000 dirhams.