Financial & Economic Blog

Financial Times noted on Thursday that Bahrain, which is heavily dependent on its financial services sector, will sell nearly $800m worth of bonds in order to finance house building projects and bolster the island’s beleaguered economy. Moreover, other Gulf countries could be next in line, as Dubai, Oman and Saudi Arabia will all be running deficits in the coming year. However, the paper writes, Bahrain “has far smaller foreign currency reserves than its more hydrocarbon-rich neighbors.” Moody’s lowered its outlook on Bahrain’s debt rating to negative back in January, and several Bahrain-based firms have been downgraded or put on negative watch. That said, “most of the 400 financial institutions in Bahrain are offshore and unlikely to need state support.”