Soon after achieving independence, Algeria adopted an interventionist economic model that focused on the oil industry, after which reforms made during the 1980s fell short. In the middle of the 1990s, the threat of an economic collapse forced the government to implement free-market reforms, which entailed serious difficulties for a great part of the population, even though a persisting informal sector brought some relief. Although the oil industry has been liberalized, it is still not enough to stimulate the rest of the economy today.