As Algerians fast, pray and gather for Ramadan, many residents in Algiers are also looking for a way to pay for the holiday table. The Associated Press reports that shoppers and vendors at markets describe prices that have climbed even as people say purchasing power has weakened in recent years. For many families, Ramadan’s religious schedule—breaking the fast at sunset and preparing feast meals—now arrives alongside a practical calculation about whether staples remain within reach.
At the Clauzel market in central Algiers, retired railway worker Ahmed Messai described the shift from earlier years when Ramadan shopping was more affordable. He told the Associated Press that in the 1970s people could stock up for Ramadan and afford fresh meat, fruit and vegetables, contrasting that with today’s tighter budget for comparable items. The AP also described how merchants’ stalls remain well stocked with fruit and vegetables even as prices climb as Ramadan approaches.
On the ground floor of the market, the AP said one older woman lamented onion prices that she described as rising from 45 dinars per kilo to 100 dinars in two days. The report said she hurled insults at a vendor as he discussed profit margins. The AP added that carrots were selling for 150 dinars per kilo, peppers for 200 dinars and green beans for 550 dinars, and that her shopping basket remained empty.
The Associated Press reported that tensions at marketplaces have at times turned violent, and that after Algeria experienced nationwide protests in 2019, the government became focused on preventing broader unrest. In that context, President Abdelmadjid Tebboune made specific promises about Ramadan supplies and social calm, including a pledge in a government statement at a special Cabinet discussion on Ramadan food provisions. The Associated Press quoted Tebboune as saying: “all conditions must be guaranteed to allow citizens to spend the holy month in perfect peace and without worry.”
Among the measures Tebboune outlined were planned government imports for Ramadan of 144,000 sheep and 46,000 cattle. The AP said locally sourced meat, including mutton from Algeria’s High Plateaus and young cattle from the Kabyle mountains, has become prohibitively expensive even for middle-income professionals, contributing to demand for alternative supply channels.
With food-cost pressures persisting, the AP described civil society as playing a major role during Ramadan. Restaurant owners in some areas, it said, have converted dining spaces into soup kitchens and “mercy restaurants” that serve free meals. Academic Hocine Zairar said the mechanism supports solidarity and civic awareness but also reflects a deeper problem, telling the AP: “but the proliferation of this type of restaurant says something serious about our society: how poverty is gaining ground in our country.”
The Associated Press said one of the largest “mercy restaurant” operations in Algiers is run across different neighborhoods by the Algerian Red Crescent. It reported that people line up at long tables inside a large tent in a central square to break their fast, and quoted Nour el-Houda Remdani, one of the organizers, saying the operation serves up to 800 meals a day. The AP added that the restaurants have increasingly shifted from serving mainly singles, people without housing and travelers to hosting entire families.
The AP also reported that Tebboune acknowledged economic changes that have affected Algeria’s middle class. In an interview on Algerian television earlier this month, the Associated Press quoted Tebboune as saying: “The middle class, once the pride of Algeria, is now being decimated by the crisis.” The government, according to the AP, has promised steps that include raising the minimum wage from 20,000 to 24,000 dinars, increasing retirement pensions by 5 to 10%, and expanding unemployment benefits for university graduates from 15,000 to 18,000 dinars.
To frame the broader affordability picture, the Associated Press cited salary and exchange-rate context, saying the average salary in Algeria is 42,800 dinars, about $330 at the official exchange rate and less than $235 on the informal market. The report also included comments from Professor Redouane Boudjema of the Institute of Journalism in Algiers, who said the Ramadan aid measures aim to help ensure “social peace” and to absorb political anger linked to restrictions on civil and trade union freedoms.