Algeria

Algeria is the largest country in Africa, covering an area of 926,645 square miles (2,400,000 square kilometers) and is bordered on land by Tunisia, Libya, Niger, Mali, Mauritania, western Sahara, and Morocco. Its northern coastline on the Mediterranean Sea stretches 620 miles (998 kilometers) and it is protected from the expanding Sahara Desert in the south by the Atlas Mountains. The World Bank estimates the population at 35,468,208, and 99 percent of the population is of Arab-Berber descent (the remaining percent is European in origin). From its oil and natural gas revenues, [Page 34]its primary exports, Algeria has been able to build significant foreign exchange reserve, about $173 billion. In early 2011, inflation was 5.7 percent, and roughly 20 percent of its population lived below ...