The Bahraini Ministry of Finance expects that the Kingdom will record a deficit of 1.2 billion dinars (equivalent to 3.2 billion dollars) in the 2021 budget. Bahrain is targeting a budget of 3.6 billion dinars for the year 2021, with expected revenues of 2.4 billion dinars. As for next year, the ministry estimated total expenditures at 3.57 billion dinars, compared to total revenues of 2.46 billion dinars, which results in a slight decrease in the wages to about 1.1 billion dinars.
In this context, Sheikh Salman bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, the Minister of Finance and Economy affirmed that "the Kingdom remains committed to achieving the objectives of the Fiscal Balance Program, which is a set of public finance reforms linked to financial aid."
According to the estimates of the International Monetary Fund, Bahrain's economy shrank by 5.4 percent last year, with vital sectors such as energy and tourism affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, while Bahrain expects the economy to grow by 5 percent this year, as the sovereign wealth fund (Mumtalakat) will double it contributions to the government revenues, while Bahrain seeks to boost the non-oil revenues. According to the Fund, the public debt rose to 133 percent of GDP last year, from 102 percent in 2019, warning that Bahrain needs to reduce government debt as soon as the economic recovery from the Coronavirus crisis takes hold.
Source (Al-Araby Al-Jadeed Newspaper, Edited)
