North Africa Archive

When Algeria’s newly appointed prime minister, Ahmed Ouyahia, addressed parliament last month, he ominously declared that his government would be insolvent by November. Three years of low oil prices had rapidly expanded the country’s budget deficit and eroded its reserves, leaving it with little cash to pay public sector employees or invest in the type of projects that would keep the private sector afloat. Ouyahia’s startling admission provided the pretext for unveiling a new, unconventional monetary policy that he argued would buy Algeria some more time to fix its finances and execute reforms. Ouyahia’s policy—known popularly by economists as “helicopter […]

After several false starts over the past decade, the United States finally lifted sanctions it first levied against Sudan nearly two decades ago. The decision came late last week, after the Trump administration had extended its deadline over the summer on whether to make the Obama administration’s easing of sanctions permanent. The sanctions relief for Sudan was one of former President Barack Obama’s final, surprising foreign policy moves in office. The U.S. has imposed the financial restrictions since the 1990s in response to the Sudanese regime’s penchant for harboring terrorists and for the atrocities it has committed, including the genocide […]