The military-backed clean-up and stronger export earnings are unlikely to help the economy. Reform is promised but structural change is unlikely, President Abdelmajid Tebboune's government breathed a typically Algerian sigh of relief as more stable oil prices and the higher gas prices have infused the cash-strapped treasury with funds. Algiers had been living off fast-dwindling foreign reserves, which stood at US$46.2 billion – not enough to cover a year of imports – at end-August, compared with around $200bn in 2014. It even drew down its extra allocation of $2.67bn from the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) issue of Special Drawing Rights last year.