Bahrain economy to ‘grow’ at 2.7% in 2025, 3.3% in 2026

TDT | Manama

Email : editor@newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain’s economy is set to grow by 2.7 per cent in 2025 and 3.3 per cent in 2026, up from 2.6 per cent this year, the Arab Monetary Fund said.

Non-oil activity, which makes up most of output, is the main driver.

Investment in roads and utilities, logistics, modern finance and tourism is expected to keep that pace.

The outlook sits within the Economic Recovery Plan launched in October 2021, a programme of more than $30bn in projects across tourism, telecoms, industry, housing, education, and youth and sport.

National strategies

The plan also rolls out national strategies to widen the base of the economy and lift the share of ICT, logistics and financial services in GDP.

The current account is forecast to keep healthy surpluses, backed by foreign-currency earnings from oil, aluminium and tourism.

Across the Arab world, growth is put at 3.8 per cent in 2025 and 4.3 per cent in 2026, from 2.2 per cent in 2024.

Price pressures

Inflation is seen easing from 31.9 per cent this year to 20.8 per cent next year and 14.2 per cent in 2026; excluding countries with extreme price pressures, the rates fall to 7.6 per cent in 2025 and 5.6 per cent in 2026.

For the Gulf states, growth is projected at 4.0 per cent in 2025 and 4.4 per cent in 2026, after 2.2 per cent in 2024, helped by non-oil sectors.