Economics
Bahrain to Focus on ‘Stringent Cost Controls’ to Balance Budget
- Nation has relied on debt sales to fund deficits: minister
- Saudi, U.A.E., Kuwait pledged $10 billion in aid to Bahrain
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Bahrain, one of the oil-rich Gulf’s most vulnerable economies, will focus on “stringent cost controls” as it seeks to cut its budget deficit and reduce interest costs while using investment to stimulate growth, the country’s finance minister said.
The government trimmed the deficit by 35 percent last year as part of a plan to balance the budget by 2022, said Sheikh Salman bin Khalifa Al-Khalifa, minister of finance and national economy, in an interview Saturday with Bloomberg TV in Dubai. Cutting the deficit is a requirement of a $10 billion aid package funded by neighboring states including the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.