Algeria inflation rate 2026: why your basket feels higher

Algeria’s inflation rate from 2022 to 2026

The figure usually quoted is the consumer price index for Algiers, published every month by the ONS (Office National des Statistiques). Its December bulletins give each year’s average: 2022 , 2023 , 2024 and 2025 .

Then 2026 turned. In the July 2026 bulletin , prices were 7.2% above July 2025: food +6.9%, fresh farm produce +13.2%, mutton +19.3%, potatoes +43.7%, while packaged foods such as oil, sugar and coffee stayed flat (−0.1%). The 12-month average rose from 1.2% in April to 2.5% in June and 3.1% in July.

How the consumer price index is built

A consumer price index follows the price of the same basket of goods and services over time. The ONS basket holds 261 items in 791 varieties, priced regularly in shops across 11 districts of the capital, from Bab El Oued to El Harrach. Each item is weighted by its share of household spending, from a national survey of 12 150 households on what they spent in 2000, and the basket covers 95% of consumption. Prices are compared with 2001, set at 100.

Food and non-alcoholic drinks make up 43% of the weights, transport and communication 16%, housing and charges 9%, miscellaneous 9%, clothing and shoes 7%, health and hygiene 6%, furniture 5%, and education, culture and leisure 5%. In July 2026 the index stood at 303.6: the basket cost about three times its 2001 price.

Each month gives two figures. The change over a year compares the month with the same month a year earlier (7.2% in July 2026). The annual rate compares the last twelve months with the twelve before (3.1%): it smooths out the seasons, but it lags when prices turn. When you read “inflation at 3%”, check which one it is.

Why your inflation is not the official figure

• Your weights. Food is 43% of the index. A family that puts 60% of its spending into food feels the 13.2% rise in fresh produce far more; someone whose unchanged rent takes 40% of the month may feel less than the index.
• What you buy often. You see the price of vegetables every few days, and of a fridge once in ten years. Over the year to July 2026, bread and cereals fell 0.9% and dairy rose 0.8%, but fresh vegetables rose 15.8%: the rise sits where you look most.
• The level, not the rate. A low rate means prices rise slowly, not that they fall. From 2021 to 2025 the index rose about 26% in annual averages; food fell 2.7% in 2025 but stayed about 29% above 2021. A basket worth 10 000 DA in 2021 cost about 12 600 DA in 2025.
• Where you live. The index quoted is measured in Algiers. The ONS national index, built from 17 towns and villages, rose 6.7% between July 2025 and July 2026, against 7.2% in Algiers. Your own market can be on either side.
• Lines you don’t buy. The “miscellaneous” group rose 22.7% over the same year. As its prices have risen far faster than the rest since 2001, it now weighs about 18% of the basket’s cost and, by our calculation from the ONS tables, explains about half of the 7.2%.

Purchasing power: your income against your own prices

Purchasing power is what your income can buy. It grows when your income rises faster than your own prices, and shrinks otherwise: (1 + income growth) ÷ (1 + your inflation) − 1.

The national minimum wage (SNMG) rose from 20 000 to 24 000 DA a month on 1 January 2026, under presidential decree 26-01 : +20%. For someone on that wage whose basket rose 8% in a year, that gives 1.20 ÷ 1.08 − 1, about +11%. A salary that stayed at 60 000 DA while the basket rose 8% lost about 7%: it buys what 55 600 DA bought a year earlier.

Calculate your personal inflation rate

1. Choose two comparable months, such as July 2025 and July 2026. Don’t compare a Ramadan month with an ordinary one.
2. List last year’s spending by category, from your notes, receipts or app.
3. Price the same purchases today: the same kilos, the same brands. Buying less is a change in quantity, not inflation.
4. Add up both columns. Your rate = (this year − last year) ÷ last year.
5. Compare it with the ONS change over a year for that month, and find the lines that explain the gap.

This family’s inflation is 4 850 ÷ 60 000 = 8.1%, against 7.2% for the Algiers index and 3.1% for the 12-month average. Potatoes, vegetables and meat are 37% of its spending but explain 95% of its rise.

What to do with your own rate

• Adjust your budget limits to your own rate, line by line: if vegetables cost 16% more, a 9 000 DA limit becomes about 10 450 DA. Decide where the difference comes from before the month decides for you.
• Watch the three or four lines that explain your rise every month, and redo the whole calculation every six months or after a raise or a move.
• Plan the seasonal peaks. In March 2026, during Ramadan and the Aïd el-Fitr, the Algiers index rose 3.5% in a single month, and food 4.7%. Spread such costs over the months before: the Ramadan budget shows how.
• Keep saving, even a smaller amount: saving on an Algerian salary shows how to keep savings first when prices rise.

Doing it with Jibi

• Statistics by category and by month show what each line cost this month and the months before: the raw material of your personal inflation.
• Set a monthly budget with a limit per category: raise the limits of the lines that moved, and Jibi warns you when one gets close.
• Your cash, your Edahabia card and your CIB account each keep their own balance, so what you pay in cash at the marché stays in the picture.
• Add salary, rent and subscriptions once as monthly entries: they come back by themselves.

Jibi is free and never connects to your bank or to Algérie Poste: you note what you spend. To set your limits step by step, follow the monthly budget guide .