Bahrain economy shows signs of gradual recovery

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Slowly but surely, Bahrain’s economy is showing promising signs of recovery despite the prolonged pandemic. This was based on the Information and eGovernment Authority’s preliminary results of the national accounts for the fourth quarter of 2020.


The report indicated that gross domestic product (GDP) had achieved a slight recovery in the fourth quarter of last year at current prices, equivalent to 0.20%, while the economy stabilised at constant prices compared to the previous quarter of the same year (Q3 2020).

The quarterly National Accounts bulletin showed that the GDP of the non-oil sectors grew by 3.32% and 2.07% at real and current prices respectively supported by the recovery of the financial sector, transportation and communications sector, government services and trade sectors.

The national accounts re- port confirmed that financial projects grew by 11.56% at real prices and declined by 6.59% at current prices when compared to the third quarter of 2020.

The bulletin showed a significant growth in the field of transportation and communications by 9.44% and 9.97%.

Government services also registered a growth of 5.25% at real prices and 13.05% at current prices.

The social and personal services had shown a positive growth of 7.15% at real prices and 8.45% at current prices. As for the trade sector, it rose by 2.03% and 2.87% at real and current prices, respectively.

The building and construction recorded a slight contraction of 0.77% at real prices, while it achieved a growth of 1.25% at current prices, while the mining and quarrying sector recorded a major contraction of 12.28% at real prices and 11.43% at current prices.

The hotel and restaurant activity recorded a decrease of 13.58% at real prices and 13.52% at current prices, reflecting the impact of the pandemic on the tourism sector.
The Manufacturing sector has shown a mixed trend, decreased by 1.79% at real prices while they grew by 5.31% at current prices.

As for private educational and health services, private ed- ucation witnessed a decrease of 0.54% and 0.21% at real and cur- rent prices, respectively. Private health services also witnessed a contraction of 0.02% at real prices, while they increased by 0.06% at current prices.

Q4 2019-2020 estimates comparison

When compared, the economic sectors and activities during the fourth quarter of 2020 with the corresponding quarter for the year 2019, the economy contracted by 5.51% at real prices and by 7.28% at current prices.

The results also showed a significant negative growth in the oil sector by 8.62% at constant prices, and by 30.90% at cur- rent prices, and the decline also continued in the non-oil sector by 4.82% and 3.27% at constant and current prices, respectively.