Bahrain has cut its budget deficit to 404 million Bahraini dinars ($1.07 billion) in the first half of 2019, compared to 650 million dinars in the same period of last year.
The Bahraini Ministry of Finance & National Economy announced that the Kingdom is moving much faster than the expected time frame to reduce the deficit. Bahrain approved last year, a plan to reform its heavily indebted public finances after it secured a Gulf pledge of $10 billion, when the government of Bahrain received $2.3 billion in 2018 and expects to receive another $2.28 billion in 2019 under an agreement signed with its Gulf allies.
Bahrain forecast the budget deficit to fall from 6.2 per cent of GDP in 2018 to 3.4 per cent in 2019 and then to 2.1 per cent in 2020. Bahrain expects also to receive further payments of $1.76 billion in 2020 and 1.85 billion in 2021, 1.42 billion in 2022, and 650 million in 2023.
It is worth noting that Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates agreed last year to provide $10 billion to Bahrain to support their funding needs while it is implementing a financial program aimed at ending its budget deficit by 2022.
Source: (Al-Arabiya.net, Edited)
