Mubasher: Bahrain's real gross domestic product (real GDP) growth is expected to hold steady in 2016 thanks to a resilient non-oil economy, which helps in overcoming some of the on-going weakness in the oil sector, the National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) said Tuesday in a report.
NBK expected Bahrain’s real GDP growth to reach 2.9% year-on-year (y-o-y) in 2016, before rising to 3.4% y-o-y in the next year.
The bank forecasted the growth in real oil GDP to stand at the same levels in 2016 and 2017 amid steady oil production levels, while the real non-oil growth is expected to remain flat at 3.6% y-o-y in 2016 and rise to 4% y-o-y in 2017 on high levels of investment.
Bahrain’s consumer price index (CPI) is expected to rise slightly and average around 2.5% in 2016, the reported stated.
NBK predicted Bahrain to see one of the largest budget deficits in the GCC region as the budget deficit is expected to expand to around 17% of GDP in 2016 before narrowing to around 14% of GDP in 2017.
