Algeria will spend a record $50 billion over the next five years to boost economic growth and address growing social needs caused by more than a decade of a brutal uprising, the president's office said.
Half of the ambitious spending - part of the 2005 finance law agreed by the cabinet on Wednesday - will be dedicated to new development projects, the office said without elaborating.
President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's programme comes shortly after his sweeping re-election in April and is significantly higher than his 1999-2004 spending plan of $7.5 billion.
"The main objectives of the 2005 finance law project is to preserve macro-economic and financial equilibrium, consolidate economic growth and respond to growing social needs," the statement said.
Algeria with a population of 32 million suffers from heavy bureaucracy, a lack of transparency, a bloated public sector, decaying infrastructure and an inefficient banking system, economists say.
Economists hope for great change in Africa's second largest country after Bouteflika's re-election on the promise of wiping out remaining militant groups, boosting growth and reducing unemployment running at over 25 percent.
The five-year plan is based on a price per barrel of crude oil of $19, the dinar at 76 to the dollar, economic growth averaging 5.3 percent per year and a progressive reduction of its budget deficit.
Opec member Algeria, with its $70-billion economy, is expected to spend some of the fresh money on housing, roads, schools, water and electricity plans.
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