The Prime Minister, Minister of Finance, Aïmene Benabderrahmane, revealed, today, Monday in Algiers, that the costs of covering the wages of workers and employees who were placed in a state of compulsory unemployment for five months due to Covid-19 pandemic amounted to 674 billion dinars.
During his presentation of the Draft Finance Law 2022 before the members of the Council of the Nation, Mr. Benabderrahmane explained that the pandemic severely affected the national economy in 2020 and the beginning of 2021, similar to the rest of the economies across the world, especially with regard to the movement of people, goods, trade and the normal functioning of the markets.
Despite these tensions – says the Prime Minister – the national economy has shown a “great amount of flexibility” in the face of the negative effects of this “unfavorable” economic situation thanks to the proactive measures put in place by the public authorities with regard to maintaining economic activity, rationalizing expenditures and framing foreign trade, in addition to the internal financing of the economy.
In this regard, Mr. Benabderrahmane revealed that the state had devoted more than 298 billion dinars as direct aid, in addition to paying the salaries of employees and workers who were placed in forced unemployment as a result of the pandemic, noting that the costs of covering the wages of these workers and employees for five months amounted to 674 billion DA on the public treasury.
Accordingly, “the year 2022 must be devoted to strengthening the economic recovery measures approved by the public authorities, especially by stimulating and diversifying economic activity to revive growth and reduce dependence on hydrocarbons, especially with regard to incomes from currency, restoring balances to public accounts in the medium term and ensuring the continuity of the balance sheet as well as maintaining the optimal state support and allocating it to needy groups to preserve the social gains of citizens,” added the Prime Minister.
