2010 GDP: $159.4 billion
2010 FDI: $2.3 billion
Algeria is one of five oil-rich nations to make the list of the 10 most difficult countries to do business in. Its economy is heavily reliant on the hydrocarbon sector as one of the biggest suppliers of natural gas to the European Union.
Algeria ranks among the lowest in the world when it comes to starting a business, getting electricity, registering property, and filing taxes. It takes 48 days to register a property in Algeria, compared with about a month in the average of OECD countries. Getting an electricity connection takes more than five months, compared with two and half months in the rest of North Africa and the Middle East.
The recent political unrest across the Arab world has had a positive impact on Algeria's social and political landscape, however, with the government being prompted to go on a spending spree. This has resulted in public sector wage increases, generous food subsidies, and handouts to the unemployed.
The International Monetary Fund has also forecast that the Algerian economy will grow 3 percent in 2012. Growth in the long term could be threatened, however, by the fact that gas production from its biggest oil fields has reached a plateau and will soon start to decline.
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