Algeria in the ‘Top 3’ of the World Prosperity Index: A Fact-Check of El Khabar’s Claims
Several Algerian media outlets, such as El Khabar, Algérie-Eco, ObservAlgerie, have published articles highlighting Algeria’s high ranking in the “World Prosperity Ranking”, which places the country as the third most prosperous in Africa. This claim eerily echoes President Abdelmadjid Tebboune’s widely-mocked August 2024 declaration that Algeria is the HYPERLINK “https://lematindalgerie.com/lalgerie-3e-economie-mondiale-tebboune-suscite-les-sarcasmes/””HYPERLINK “https://lematindalgerie.com/lalgerie-3e-economie-mondiale-tebboune-suscite-les-sarcasmes/”third largest economy in the world.HYPERLINK “https://lematindalgerie.com/lalgerie-3e-economie-mondiale-tebboune-suscite-les-sarcasmes/”” Just as Tebboune’s statement was fact-checked and ridiculed for its clear disconnection from reality, this newly promoted “world prosperity ranking” also warrants similar scrutiny. Factcheck shows it is a false misleading information, by Algeria’s major news outlet controlled by the military regime of Algiers.
El Khabar and Algerie-Eco mislead their readers by falsely claiming that Algeria ranks 3rd in Africa in the Legatum Prosperity Index, referring to it as the non-existent “Classement Mondial de Prospérité” In reality, the ranking is based on the “HelloSafe Prosperity Index” which is entirely unrelated to the Legatum Prosperity Index.
Who Did The Ranking ?
The ranking was made by HelloSafe, a financial product comparison platform, comparable to platforms like Compare the Market or NerdWallet. It is a commercial product comparison service with no expertise in global socioeconomic rankings. This is the first red flag, as usually, economic and development index rankings are made by reputable academic or economic institutional bodies.
The publication of such an index by a commercial entity like HelloSafe raises questions about the potential for bias, as the primary goal may be to drive website traffic and promote financial services rather than to provide objective, scholarly research. The possibility of financial transactions or incentives influencing the rankings, especially when they align with the geopolitical interests of certain nations, cannot be dismissed.
The Intentional Misleading Omission By El Khabar:
Through its headline “Classement Mondial De Prospérité“, El Khabar misleads its readers by presenting the impression that Algeria is ranked 3rd in Africa on the globally recognized Legatum Prosperity Index, or other global institutions such as the World Bank or the IMF. However, El Khabar’s claim is derived from the “HelloSafe Prosperity Index”, a separate, less rigorous, and non-academic ranking produced by HelloSafe. By deliberately omitting “HelloSafe” from the title, El Khabar creates the illusion that the ranking comes from an authoritative, globally respected source, when in fact it’s not.
Additionally, the article begins by describing HelloSafe as a “plateforme ‘HelloSafe’ pour la prospérité mondiale,” further misleading readers into believing that HelloSafe is a dedicated institution for prosperity research. In reality, HelloSafe is a for-profit private company, legally registered as HelloSafe SAS (Société par Actions Simplifiée) since 2020, with a modest capital of €1400 and its offices based in a co-working space in Rennes, France. The company’s primary focus is on SEO-driven marketing, financial product comparisons, and digital tools, making it fundamentally different from established global research institutions producing indices like the Legatum Prosperity Index or rankings from the World Bank and IMF.
In the real and reputable Legatum Prosperity Index, Algeria is ranked 109th globally, trailing Morocco (96th) and Tunisia (99th). Algeria is grouped with countries like Cuba, Turkmenistan, and Kenya, far from a remarkable position in terms of true prosperity.
By omitting these crucial details and inflating the credibility of both the ranking and HelloSafe, El Khabar appears to intentionally mislead the reader, and misrepresent the source to enhance Algeria’s position in the narrative, an act that cannot survive basic factchecking.
In the Real Legatum Prosperity Index, Algeria Ranked 109th globally, and 12th in the Mena Region.
Having already identified the organization behind the study, assessed their credibility in conducting such research, and uncovered El Khabar’s misleading intentions, the overall reliability of the information is already highly questionable. Nevertheless, we chose to delve deeper and critically examine the methodology behind the study.
How was the study conducted?
When we look deeper into the method and how the study was conducted we find it is riddled with flaws, from over-reliance on outdated and incomplete data to disproportionately weighting GDP (30%) while ignoring critical measures like governance or political stability. This favors immensely a rent economy like Algeria, and masks structural weaknesses such as inequality, corruption, and unemployment.
Misleading and Lack Of Transparency in Weight Assignments
The study uses fixed percentages to determine how much importance each factor gets in measuring prosperity, which leads to misleading results. For example, it gives a large weight to economic factors like GDP per person (30%) and national income (20%), while giving less importance to social factors like quality of life (20%) and income fairness (15%). Without a robust rationale, these weights appear arbitrary. There’s no evidence that a 30% weighting for GDP reflects its actual importance to prosperity compared to, say, inequality or education. Furthermore, the index assumes these weights are universally applicable and cross-country, which is highly questionable given the cultural, economic, and political diversity among nations.
This approach allows countries with high economic output but poor social conditions, such as severe inequality or low living standards (which is precisely the case with Algeria), to appear more prosperous than they actually are. This distortion is exactly what El Khabar portrays in a misleading manner.
No Transparency on the origin of data for each country
We observe significant issues with the quality and completeness of the data used in the HelloSafe study, as the information provided is neither of high quality nor comprehensive. The HelloSafe study explicitly acknowledges data gaps and mentions reliance on alternative sources when official statistics are unavailable. For instance, HelloSafe states that the data was “mainly collected” from the World Bank and UNDP, as shown in the screenshot. However, this wording implies the inclusion of alternative, potentially non-standardized sources, which undermines the consistency and comparability of results across countries. A critical question arises: where did the data for Algeria, and other countries, come from? HelloSafe does not clearly state or specify its sources, instead vaguely referring to “reliable national statistics.” This ambiguity raises an additional question: could Algerian authorities have provided truncated or inflated data? Such a possibility cannot be ruled out. Regardless, the unequal quality of data across countries compromises the fairness of the study’s methodology. Additionally, outdated information for key indicators like the poverty rate and Gini coefficient further reduces the relevance and accuracy of these rankings, especially in fast-changing socio-economic contexts.
Criteria, Limitations, and Excluded Countries in the HelloSafe Prosperity Index
The study fails to explain why countries like Algeria (scoring 40) and Morocco (scoring above 30) are categorized as they are, oversimplifying socio-economic realities by grouping nations with vastly different challenges, such as high GDP with inequality versus moderate GDP with equity. It ignores critical factors like political stability, sustainability, and social cohesion, which are essential for assessing true prosperity but are entirely absent from this study. Moreover, the study uses poverty levels as defined by each country itself, introducing major comparability issues. Some countries adopt conservative poverty definitions, underreporting poverty (which we highly suspect is the case for Algeria), while others use broader criteria. These disparities further weaken the index’s reliability and its ability to provide meaningful cross-country comparisons.
Now that we have examined the methodology, it is evident that the study is incomplete, flawed, and misrepresents key aspects due to misleading weight assignments, unclear data sources for each country, and significant methodological limitations. With this understanding of the study’s weaknesses, let’s look quickly at who has reported on this news and how it has been framed in the media.
Who Has Reported This News and How ?
Amplified by media tied to Algerian intelligence (e.g., El Khabar, Observalgerie), the article’s tone is celebratory and triumphalist when discussing Algeria’s rank. Words like “the first in the Maghreb” and “third in Africa“, “stability,”, “economic stability“, “high GDP per capita,” and “development progress” are used to paint a glowing image of Algeria. Conversely, Morocco’s lower ranking is highlighted in a way that appears dismissive and critical, underscoring its supposed inferiority compared to Algeria. The article overall reinforces a narrative of Algerian superiority within the Maghreb, even when the underlying data or methodology is flawed and incomplete and does not justify such conclusions.
El Khabar also downplays the relatively small margin separating it from neighboring countries or the moderate category into which it falls, and omitting critical limitations of the study, such as its outdated data, arbitrary weightings, and lack of transparency, masking significant issues such as corruption, unemployment, and inequality, which the study itself does not account for adequately.
Additionally, the amplification of the article by African propaganda outlets such as Africa News Agency (which is owned by the Chinese Government and has been flagged as a Chinese Propaganda news syndication service in Africa) further questions the objectivity of the whole case.
CONCLUSION: INTENTIONALLY MISLEADING AND MAINLY FALSE.
No, Algeria is not a top-3 African country in prosperity by any credible metric. The HelloSafe index is promotional material weaponized by Algerian media as propaganda to manipulate prosperity perceptions. In summary, the reporting on Algeria’s rank in the HelloSafe Prosperity Index is marked by powerful limitations, hostility towards Morocco, and an inflated portrayal of Algeria’s achievements. Don’t be misled by the Military Regime of Algiers propaganda. For factual information, consult credible sources like the Legatum Prosperity Index, where Algeria ranks 109, reflecting its real struggles with corruption, unemployment, and inequality, issues the military regime of algiers seeks to obscure through articles like El Khabar’s. This is propaganda in its purest form.
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