Economy, creating new jobs top priorities of Bahrain budget

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

The Cabinet has approved a draft budget for the fiscal year 2021-2022 and referred a draft law for its approval to the Council of Representatives, in accordance with legal and constitutional rules.

This was one of the major items approved yesterday during the regular weekly Cabinet session, held remotely, and chaired by Deputy Prime Minister, His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Mubarak Al Khalifa.

The draft budget prioritizes social support for citizens in greatest need, while reducing expenditure to further improve resource management and allocation.

It also prioritizes objectives under the Fiscal Balance Program, which include increasing non-oil revenues and reducing expenditure.

Focusing on economic recovery and creating new economic opportunities are of top priority during the upcoming period.

The draft budget includes estimates of public revenues for FY2021-2022, which stands at BD2.285 billion for FY2021 and BD2.339 billion for FY2022, taking into consideration global oil price estimates of $45.

Overall recurring expenditure amounts to BD3.296 billion for FY2021 and BD3.219 billion for FY2022. A total of BD656 million has been identified for development projects for each fiscal year, in part taken from the Gulf Development Program.

The draft budget aims to reduce the primary deficit, to about BD568 million in FY2021 and BD388 million in FY2022. Overall deficit estimates stand at BD1.276 billion for FY2021 and BD1.145 billion for FY2022.

The draft budget law clearly states that the Fiscal Balance Program has achieved its 2019 objectives.