Bahrain Mirror: The Shura Council Financial and Economic Affairs Committee member, MP Darwich Al-Manaei, said that the financial deficit in the next 2 year's budget represents 10.9% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for 2017 and 9.9% of the GDP for 2019. This comes due to the fallback in oil prices, the kingdom's strategic source of income.

Al-Manaei believed that the "public debt limit will increase from ten billion Bahraini Dinars to thirteen billion Bahraini Dinars, which represents the amount the kingdom needs to cover the 2017 and 2018 state deficit." He indicated the increase of public debt is unavoidable.

Moreover, the Bahraini MP indicated that there are public debt services costs that might reach "a billion and thirty million Bahraini Dinars", stressing that it is not an easy number, as its interest would represent around 22% of the general revenue of both years.

He also noted that the increase in public debt has many negative repercussions, including the reduction in the Kingdom's financial assessment, and increase of loan interest rates.

Arabic Version