Bahrain’s hydrocarbon-related revenue accounted for 75% of government revenues in 2017 and 55% of exports, figures sure to increase when exploration concludes.
Rating agency Moody’s reported that Bahrain has an oil output of around 198,000 bpd of which around 150,000 bpd comes from an offshore field that it shares with Saudi Arabia, a country that produces just around 10 million bpd.
Account deficit
Bahrain’s current account swung from surpluses averaging 8% of GDP in 2012-13, to deficits averaging 3.7 percent of GDP in 2015-17,” analysts told CNBC.
“The reserves have since recovered somewhat on the back of large sovereign external bond issuances, including $3 billion in international bonds in September 2017 and $1 billion in international sukuk (Islamic bonds) in April 2018.”
Bahrain’s dwindling foreign reserves stood at $2.8 billion at the end of November covering only 1.4 months of imports of goods and services and less than 10 percent of Bahrain’s short-term external debt.
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