Bahraini Finance Minister Salman bin Khalifa Al Khalifa said the deficit in the general budget dropped 35% last year.

The House of Representatives unanimously approved on Tuesday (January 29, 2019) the government's work program for the next four years.

The government said its funding needs until 2022 amount to about 20 billion US dollars, and Gulf financial support covers (50%) of this need.

Media sources said that Standard Chartered Bank of Bahrain announced on Monday (November 12, 2018) its intention to close 3 branches of it, in the Diplomatic Area, Zayed Town and Saar, starting December 20.

Civil Service Bureau (CSB) Chairman Ahmed Zayed Al-Zayed announced the number of employees who applied for voluntary retirement, which represents one of the six initiatives of the Fiscal Balance Program, reached more than 9 thousand.

The Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB) lost 321.7 million BD of foreign assets ($848.7 million) within the first nine months of 2018.

More than 8,000 government employees have applied for the voluntary retirement program to date, reported the Bahrain News Agency (BNA) on Saturday (November 3, 2018).

The Nationalist Democratic Assembly announced the cancellation of a seminar after pressure from the Bahraini Ministry of Justice and Islamic Affairs, which demanded preventing opposition leader Ibrahim Sharif’s participation in the event.

Deputy Prime Minister Khalid bin Abdullah Al Khalifa said that approximately 7,000 employees had applied for the voluntary retirement program.

A Bahraini Civil Service Bureau source said that hundreds of government employees had submitted requests to withdraw from the voluntary retirement program.

The Bahraini Civil Service Bureau said on Sunday (October 14, 2018) that the number of applicants to benefit from the voluntary retirement program has reached more than 6,000 so far.