Infrastructure investments driving Bahrain’s growth: NBK

Bahrain’s economy is expected to continue being driven by the non-oil sector and underpinned by high levels of infrastructure spending, National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) said in its latest report.

Some of these infrastructure spending will be financed by the recently announced $10 billion GCC support package of loans, deposits and grants, the report said, adding real GDP growth is expected to hold at around a healthy 3 percent over 2019-2020.

“These will be disbursed in installments over the next five years and may help finance major infrastructure projects such as the $1 billion Bahrain International Airport expansion project, the Bahrain national oil company modernization project and the Aluminum Bahrain (Alba) expansion project,” it added.

NBK report noted these should yield both growth and employment dividends, offsetting some of the negative impact on domestic demand of the fiscal austerity measures.