Bahrain is GCC’s fastest growing economy in 2017

Manama : Bahrain has emerged as the fastest growing economy in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) helped by a 3.9 per cent growth in real GDP, as its non-oil economy expanded 5pc, said the latest Bahrain Economic Quarterly (BEQ) report. 

According to the quarterly report by the Bahrain Economic Development Board (EDB), the pace of growth in the Kingdom ‘accelerated markedly’ in 2017 compared to 3.2pc in
2016. 

This strong performance, in the face of sluggish regional growth, was driven by broad-based success across the highly-diversified non-oil private sector, led by tourism, a strong pipeline of infrastructure projects, and a record year for foreign direct investment (FDI). 

Earlier this month, the IMF’s World Economic Outlook forecast that Bahrain’s economy would continue to be the fastest growing economy in the GCC in 2018, suggesting momentum is expecting to be maintained into the current year.

Led by tourism, Bahrain’s hotels and restaurants sector expanded 9.5pc in 2017 with total visitor expenditure rising by 8.9pc and the average length of stay increasing 2.5pc to 2.82 days.  

Other high performing sectors in 2017 included social and personal services (9.4pc), led by private education and healthcare, trade (8.5pc), real estate and professional services (5.5pc) and financial services (5pc). 

Additionally, the EDB attracted BHD 276 million of foreign direct investment into Bahrain in 2017, a record year for the organization. This represents an increase of 161pc from 2016 and is expected to generate 2,800 jobs over the next three
years.

Data also suggests that the oil and gas sector now accounts for the only 18.4pc of Bahrain’s real GDP, compared to 43.6pc in 2000.