Manama: Finance Minister Shaikh Ahmad Bin Mohammad Al Khalifa said that the latest International Monetary Fund (IMF) country recommendations “echo Bahrain’s current fiscal action plan”.
The minister in a statement on Friday welcomed the IMF’s positive outlook on Bahrain’s banking sector whose “strong capitalisation and liquidity” the report said would help “weather” any potential slowdown in growth.
Earlier, the IMF said that with the oil price decline expected to persist over the medium term, “a sizeable fiscal adjustment is urgently needed to restore fiscal sustainability, reduce vulnerabilities, and boost investor and consumer confidence”.
Shaikh Ahmad said that Bahrain, along with other oil producing nations, was facing the global challenge of falling oil prices, but was determined to address the situation successfully.
“Bahrain’s Government Action Plan, currently underway, includes wide-ranging measures that will ensure the sustainability of Bahrain’s financial resources and development, benefiting the entire country,” he said. “Bahrain’s clear target is to deliver a balanced budget within three budgetary cycles. The plan also aims to create a balance between our revenues and expenditures, continuing the long-standing diversification of Bahrain’s economy by increasing non-oil revenues, redirecting subsidies to Bahraini citizens, and reducing recurrent expenditure by restructuring government departments,” he said in the clearest indication yet of the Kingdom’s determination on fiscal measures.
Promote growth
The government’s programme and strategic projects currently valued at $32 billion (Dh117 billion) are already being delivered and are augmented by a range of development projects supported by the GCC Development Fund, valued at $10 billion over ten years, the minister added.
“Together, these will promote economic growth and development and, in turn, benefit Bahrain’s citizens by maximising the use of existing resources and resulting in long-term economic sustainability,” Shaikh Ahmad said in a statement carried by Bahrain News Agency (BNA).
These projects are fundamental elements of the Government’s Action Plan, supporting national priorities ranging from housing, airport expansion, infrastructure, and social projects which also underline the government’s commitment to job creation and maintaining Bahrain’s low unemployment rate, which has remained fixed at 3.8 per cent for the last few years, the minister said.
Shaikh Ahmad added that the government’s continued work on developing the national economy was being delivered “through a holistic, cross-sector approach, focused on improving the Kingdom’s GDP, which rose from $3.4 billion in 2000 to $12.8 billion in 2014”.
