After the rupture with the Emirates: they claim Algeria is collapsing — here are the dates, and the 9 decisions we are asking of the President
Nadia Cherifi — Alger, Algérie — 2026-09-13
Note on method. This dossier is written from Algiers, and it deals with domestic decisions. Every figure is confronted with a dated, named document. We do not defend the State out of reflex: where the criticism is founded, we write it in black and white — and it is precisely because the deficit is real that the 9 decisions that follow are not negotiable.
🇩🇿 Why we are addressing the President today
On 10 September 2026, Algeria severed its diplomatic relations with the United Arab Emirates, after years of tensions and accusations of interference in our domestic affairs. This is a decision of sovereignty, and it has been taken.
Since then, a campaign has been circulating. Anonymous texts, charts with no source, screenshots with no date. Their message is always the same: “look, Algeria is paying, Algeria is collapsing, Algeria was wrong.”
We live here, and we do our shopping here. We know what is true in our streets and what is not. So we took the claims one by one, and we confronted them with the dates.
And we end with what really matters: the 9 decisions the State must take, now. Because refuting a rumour feeds no one. Deciding does.
📉 First the rumour: we checked it, and here are the dates
The dinar did not collapse — it was stable two days after the rupture
On Saturday 12 September 2026, at Square Port-Saïd, in Algiers — the exchange point that everyone knows — this is what was on display:
| 12 September 2026 | Buy | Sell |
|---|---|---|
| Euro | 275 dinars | 277 dinars |
| Dollar | 234 dinars | 236 dinars |
The newspaper that recorded those rates that day writes that they are “the same figures as the day before”. The day before the rupture, on 9 September, the euro stood at 276 dinars — and it was already at that level in early August.
And we must say it to the end: the dinar has not weakened, it has RECOVERED. Its peak was 292 dinars to the euro in November 2025. Since then, the euro has come back down below 280. A currency coming back from its record is not a currency that is collapsing.
Prices are falling — and it is the National Office of Statistics saying so
These are not propaganda figures: they are those of the ONS (National Office of Statistics), published on its official website.
| Indicator (ONS) | Value |
|---|---|
| Annual inflation | +1.2% |
| Food goods | −1.6% |
| Fresh agricultural products | −2.1% |
| Mutton and offal | −8.1% |
| Coffee | −4.7% |
The ONS speaks of a rate “among the lowest in the region and beyond”. And the World Bank confirms a “sustained deceleration” since mid-2024, after peaks of nearly 10% in the two previous years.
Saying that prices are exploding when food prices are falling is not an opinion: it is a falsehood that can be checked in three clicks.
The power cuts: real, but in July and August
We do not deny the cuts. We refuse to let someone invent a cause for them.
On 15 July 2026, a general blackout hit Algiers, Constantine, Tizi-Ouzou, Bouira and Jijel. Official cause: a technical malfunction at the Sidi Okba installation, in the wilaya of Biskra, in extreme heat and exceptional humidity.
On 17 August 2026 at 2:21 p.m., national consumption reached 21,650 megawatts — a record. The grid held. And that heatwave did not strike only us: Tunisia experienced the same cuts, on the same days.
The rupture took place on 10 September. The cuts: two months earlier. This is not a calendar detail: it is the whole demonstration collapsing.
The queues: they date back to 2021
The story of the “long queues outside the shops” comes from an article dated 12 April 2021, about the cooking oil shortage. Five years and five months before the rupture. And the detail that gives the copy away: that article is about Mila, in the Jijel region — not Algiers or Oran.
The brands that are closing: December 2024, and not for that reason
The Inditex group — Zara, Stradivarius, Bershka, Pull&Bear, Massimo Dutti, Oysho — did indeed close around twenty stores and suspend more than 300 jobs. But it was “since December 2024”, because of the legal framework of franchising and the Made in Algeria rule on the integration rate. Twenty months before the rupture, and for a reason that has nothing to do with Abu Dhabi.
The method, in four steps — recognisable from now on
1. You take real facts: the cuts of July, the closures of December 2024, a shortage of 2021.
2. You remove the dates.
3. You paste the whole thing onto the rupture of 10 September.
4. You add a cause that no one has demonstrated.
What these texts never have: a source, a date, a signature, a precise figure, a link. Remember this simple rule: a text that quotes no one does not want to be verified.
🏛️ To the decision-makers: the 9 decisions our correspondents are asking you to take
We are not asking to be listened to. We are asking for decisions.
Here are the nine decisions this dossier puts on the head of State's table. They require neither a new budget nor a new law: they require publication, audit and transparency.
| Decision | Who decides | What the ground shows |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Publish the public inventory of Emirati assets in Algeria — ports, logistics, energy, chemicals, real estate — and their value | Ministry of Finance · General Directorate of Customs | between 6 and 10 billion dollars estimated, no public list exists |
| 2. Audit clause by clause the port and logistics concessions, including those of DP World | Ministry of Transport · port authorities | a foreign operator manages the country's gateways, with no known public audit |
| 3. Secure and, if necessary, take back the management of critical infrastructure | People's National Army · Ministry of Energy | a port, a chemicals plant, a terminal: these are targets, not shops |
| 4. Replace Emirati imports — raw materials, equipment, plastics — with European, Chinese or Algerian suppliers | Ministry of Trade · public operators | 80 to 85% of trade between the two countries goes from them to us: that is where the leverage is |
| 5. Speed up national production of petrochemical and plastic inputs | Sonatrach · Ministry of Industry | what we import from them, our plants can produce |
| 6. Protect Algerians settled in the Emirates: rights, repatriation, support | Ministry of Foreign Affairs · national community abroad | 48 hours were given to an ambassador — not to families |
| 7. Revise the tax treaties and monitor financial flows with the Emirates | Ministry of Finance · Bank of Algeria | a country that destabilises must not continue to enjoy tax advantages |
| 8. Publish each year a public report on foreign interference in Algeria | government · security services | the rupture of 10 September 2026 must be explained, documented and followed by action |
| 9. Publish each quarter the outstanding public debt in dinars, with its domestic and external breakdown | Ministry of Finance · Bank of Algeria | 17,000 billion dinars were announced at the Council of the Nation — but no public quarterly series exists |
And one last thing, which is not an administrative decision: that Algeria's position on Palestine never be put on a negotiating table, whatever the price offered. On this question, there is nothing to discuss — and this is what our correspondents are asking to be guaranteed.
⚖️ What we concede, from Algiers, because it is true
We have not come to defend a government. We have come to say what is.
The budget deficit is real, and it is high: about 10.5% of GDP in 2025, according to the IMF. That is a lot, and the Fund is right to say so.
Dependence on hydrocarbons is real. The barrel has fallen back to around 72 dollars, close to the reference price of our finance law. When oil falls, our revenue falls.
And the financing of the deficit by the Bank of Algeria worries economists. This is a legitimate debate, and it must be held in the open, not in rumours.
That is why we are asking for the quarterly publication of the debt. When the State publishes its figures, the falsehoods die on their own. It is the best defence, and it costs nothing.
🎯 The conclusion, in four sentences
The dinar did not collapse: on 12 September, two days after the rupture, the euro stood at 275 dinars — the same figures as the day before.
Prices are not exploding: inflation is at 1.2% and food prices are falling by 1.6%, according to the ONS.
The cuts date from July and August, the queues from 2021, the closures from December 2024 — and none of them has any link to the rupture of 10 September.
But the deficit itself is very real. That is why we are not asking to be believed: we are asking for publication, for audits, and for decisions.
🔗 The sources, in direct access
- The dinar rates on 12 September 2026 — Algérie Zoom: https://algeriezoom.com/marche-noir-euro-dollar-restent-stables-dinar-algerien-12-septembre/
- The rates on 9 September 2026 and the November 2025 record — TSA Algérie: https://www.tsa-algerie.com/dinar-algerien-leuro-et-le-dollar-stagnent-a-des-niveaux-eleves/
- Inflation at 1.2% and food prices at −1.6% — ONS, via L'Algérie Aujourd'hui: https://lalgerieaujourdhui.dz/indice-de-lons-sur-levolution-des-prix-en-algerie-inflation-maitrisee/
- The cut of 15 July 2026, Sidi Okba installation — El Moudjahid: https://www.elmoudjahid.dz/fr/actualite/le-premier-ministre-supervise-l-operation-de-retablissement-de-l-electricite-apres-la-panne-survenue-au-niveau-de-l-installation-electrique-de-sidi-okba-biskra-255637
- The record of 21,650 MW on 17 August 2026 — Algérie Presse: http://algeriepresse.dz/un-mois-apres-le-black-out-de-biskra-lalgerie-bat-un-nouveau-pic-electrique/
- The queues: article of 12 April 2021 — Panorapost: https://panorapost.ma/post.php?id=31434
- The closure of the Inditex stores “since December 2024” — Maghreb Émergent: https://maghrebemergent.news/fr/zara-stradivarius-bershka-la-fin-dun-cycle-pour-les-franchises-etrangeres-en-algerie/
- The deficit of 10.5% of GDP and the debt at 52.1% (IMF mission, July 2026) — Banker.news: https://www.banker.news/143153
- The 17,000 billion dinars announced by the Minister of Finance — El Khabar: https://www.elkhabar.com/fr/monde/la-dette-interieure-est-sous-controle-261656
- Algeria–Emirates trade and the 80-85% — Veto Gate (Egypt), 10 September 2026: https://www.vetogate.com/5729342
These links open the documents cited directly, with their dates. They are enough to redo this dossier, claim by claim.
Final note. The dollar amounts are those published by the sources cited. The World Bank series are cited with their exact code. Where the criticism is founded — the deficit, dependence on hydrocarbons, the financing of the deficit — we write it without dressing it up. Where a figure is wrong, we give the exact figure and the document that carries it.