KPMG: Algeria Holds 5.12% of Global Gold Reserves, Lowest MENA Debt

KPMG’s Algeria analysis lists the country’s gold stock at 173.6 tonnes, representing 5.12% of global reserves, and describes Algeria as “the least indebted nation in MENA,” the “Maghreb locomotive” and the “third-largest regional economy.” Those characterizations sit at the center of KPMG Algeria s.p.a.’s materials, which carry a © 2025 attribution.

The report frames hydrocarbons as the fiscal backbone: hydrocarbons account for 14% of GDP and generated 86% of the country’s foreign exchange earnings, which the KPMG materials put at USD 38.37 billion in 2023. KPMG also records that roughly 52% of total government budget revenues in 2023 came from hydrocarbons, an estimated 5,577 billion Algerian dinars.

KPMG’s economic timeline in the file traces a sharp Covid swing and a hydrocarbon-driven rebound. The Algerian economy contracted by -9.5% in 2020 as a result of the Covid crisis, then expanded by 20.4% in 2021 and by 27.3% in 2022 as a result of higher hydrocarbon prices. Growth moderated to 7.5% in 2023, a 2023 figure KPMG attributes to “estimates and figures from the Bank of Algeria.”

Beyond hydrocarbons and gold, KPMG lists Algeria’s wider resource base and sector structure. The materials note gas reserves among the largest in the world and subsoil deposits including oil, phosphate, zinc, iron, gold, uranium, tungsten and kaolin. KPMG records a domestic GDP composition of 70% private sector and 30% public sector, and states that hydrocarbon exports “remain the most important source of revenue for the Algerian economy, covering all the country’s imports.”

The KPMG packet references underlying sources in its footnotes, notably the World Gold Council for the gold figure and the Bank of Algeria 2023 Annual Report for the 2023 growth estimate, and it cites a World Bank presentation in related notes. The original KPMG summary also contains a truncated line reading “Coverage from major Algerian news outlet und,” preserved in the excerpt provided to reporters.

KPMG’s claim that Algeria is the region’s least indebted country appears without an accompanying debt-to-GDP ratio or explicit debt metric in the excerpt, and the report does not include the full mapped bibliography in the supplied pages. The materials do, however, reiterate Algeria’s geostrategic position, language dynamics with French as the main economic lingua franca and growing English usage among young people and business professionals, and the report’s dating note about the Islamic lunar Hegirian calendar. Taken together, the KPMG analysis positions Algeria as a resource-rich, hydrocarbon-dependent economy with substantial official gold holdings and a fiscal profile KPMG judges comparatively low in regional indebtedness.