Bahrain
Bahrain goes economically out of petrol sector
Bahrain studies a project on constructing a station to import natural gas. This station would be ready to work by 2016. In addition, Bahrain continues to work on expanding the Sitra refinery, which is likely to be completed by 2017. Bahrain also seeks expanding the pipelines linking it to Saudi Arabia by a value exceeding the current ability by 50%, in addition to conducting deep drilling operations to explore gas fields. Bahrain stock exchange indices recorded a collective rise during the trading of January 2014 with increasing levels of liquidity. However the general Bahrain index increased during the January trade in 2014 by 3.6% to end its last sessions at a rate 1294.33 points. Bahrain stock settled during the third week of January inside the Green zone supported by banking and investment rise. The main index rose to 0.35% (i.e. 4.46 points) surpassing 1290, to reach the level of 1294.33 points. Imports index rose to 0.38% to reach 1312.279 points. The economic growth of the kingdom of Bahrain rated 4.6% on an annual basis in the third quarter of 2013, recording a drop of 5.3% compared with the second quarter. Besides, GDP growth slowed down reaching 3.5% in 2014. Yet, the GDP was expected to see a rise of 4% in 2013 after recording 3.4% in 2012. The petrol sector contributed to about 45% of the achieved growth due to improving petrol prices in the global markets and increasing production. While other sectors reached $30 million since the financial sector tops non-petroleum sectors by 16% of GDP. Budget spending of the current year increased to 164.5 million dinars to reach a total of 3.71 billion, while the volume of spending in the budget of 2013 was 3.26 billion dinars, compared to 3.26 billion of actual spending in 2012. Revenue is expected to decline in Bahrain to 2.89 billion dinars in 2014 from 3 billion last year, based on the oil price average in the budget amounting to $90 a barrel. Pursuant to International Monetary Fund outlook, the budget deficit is to rise to 914.4 million in the current year by 8.36% of GDP in 2018, compared to a 4.2% rise in the current year.
