The ‘What’s new’ section is designed to:
- Shed light on the continual ‘behind-the-scenes’ work that goes into improving our macroeconomic research and analysis. This might include improvements to our data collection processes, changes to our forecast methodologies, etc.
- Enable our long-standing partners to easily identify any changes and understand why things have changed.
- Allow us to flag-up significant changes.
New content to reflect the changing landscape
In light of the evolving strategic approach of Algerian authorities, we have now added ‘Mining & quarrying’ to our key sector updates. This is a reflection of the increasing importance of the industry in public discourse and the availability of more regular updates on mining and quarrying projects. While mining output continues to make a limited contribution to GDP as things stand, we will continue to follow developments closely as a number of large projects gather pace.
Changes behind the scenes
We have also substantially expanded our efforts to make use of English terminology across all of our English-language reports and reduce our reliance on words borrowed from French. The creation of the Itri Insights lexicon is a key part of our strategy to establish an accessible, standardised lexicon for analysing the Algerian economy in English. As we navigate this change and for ease of reference, we have also included a glossary that presents key English terms and acronyms alongside their French equivalents.
Adapting to the new data context
Since early 2019, a number of official periodic statistical publications have undergone changes in the frequency and regularity with which they are published. This continued into 2020, with trade and GDP data particularly thin on the ground. We have continued to adapt to this new data context, leaning more heavily than ever on extensive data collection and on our detailed in-house models.
As a direct consequence, our estimates and forecasts – which were initially envisaged as a means of providing readers with additional visibility – are fast becoming the most reliable reference publication for a number of our partners. This unusual situation has come with its own set of rewards and challenges.
While we pride ourselves on having the most exhaustive and comprehensive databases and models on the Algerian economy, it must be noted that many of the data points that we use are derived, at least in part, from official sources. As a result, the reduced availability of official data will undoubtedly have an impact on the reliability of our forecasts.
As such, we strongly encourage readers to consult the qualitative analysis that accompanies each of our forecasts. In these detailed discussions, we explore the reasoning behind our numerical projections as well as the upside and downside risks that might affect them. We also aim to provide a high level of transparency with regard to the challenges that may have an impact on each our forecast scenarios, providing essential context that goes beyond simple numbers and figures.
Click here to find out more about our ‘Algeria | Macroeconomic report Q3 2020’.