Energy Blog:Algeria calls for OPEC to cut production

Algeria’s oil minister has called on OPEC to cut production and raise the price of oil, which has plunged dramatically in the last six months.

Youcef Yousfi said Sunday that the oil cartel needed to “intervene to correct the imbalance and cut production to bring up prices and defend the income of its member states.”

With oil at just $60 a barrel, down from $120, oil-dependent countries like Algeria are feeling the pinch. Some 95 percent of the country’s exports are from its hydrocarbon industry, which supplies 60 percent of the budget.

In the first of a proposed series of austerity measures, Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal said Saturday there would be a freeze on public sector hiring in 2015.