Bahraini government revenues declined by 29 percent during the first half of this year 2020, due to weak oil prices and the new Coronavirus pandemic.
Oil revenues fell by 35%, while the non-oil revenues decreased by 13%, and the government spending rose by 2% in the first half of this year. Last July, Bahrain announced that it would add about 177 million dinars (470 million dollars) to the state budget for the year 2020 in emergency spending to fight the Coronavirus pandemic.
According to a royal decree, an amount of 450 million dollars will be deducted from the Future Generations Reserve account for one time. This fund was established in 2006 to reinvest oil and gas revenues and is allocated to support the state budget. According to the decree, a market also stipulates that the deduction from the oil revenues allocated for the benefit of the future generations reserve account will be suspended temporarily until the end of the fiscal year 2020. In turn, the Standard and Poor’s credit rating agency had expected Bahrain’s budget to rise to 12 percent of GDP, from 4.6 percent in 2019, in large part due to the fall in oil prices.
Bahrain, which is working to close the budget deficit, received a $10 billion aid package in 2018 from several Gulf countries, with the aim of avoiding a credit crisis and stopping the economic collapse.
Source (Al-Araby Al-Jadeed Newspaper, Edited)
