Bahrain’s trade deficit increases 200%

Reuters/Hamad I Mohammed

• Exports and re-exports fall
• Non-oil growth of 4.5%
• China, Brazil top imports

Bahrain’s trade deficit increased by 212 percent in the fourth quarter of last year following a drop in exports and re-exports from the kingdom.

The trade balance, which shows the difference between exports and imports, recorded a deficit of BD276 million ($733.2 million) in the fourth quarter, up from BD88 million in the same period in 2022, according to the latest foreign trade report released by the Information & eGovernment Authority.

While Bahrain registered a five percent year-on-year increase in imports over the three month period to BD1.5 billion, exports were down 10 percent at BD1.01 billion and re-exports fell 6 percent to BD188 million.

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According to the report, China ranked first for imports to Bahrain, with a total of BD207 million, followed by Brazil (BD136 million), and the UAE (BD119 million).

Agglomerated iron ores and concentrated alloys were marked as the top product imported to the kingdom, worth BD160 million, while aluminium oxide was second (BD110 million) and parts for aircraft engines third (BD42 million).

In terms of re-exports, the UAE was first with BD52 million, followed by Saudi Arabia (BD44 million) and Luxembourg (BD10.13 million).

Turbo jets were the top product re-exported from Bahrain with a value of BD25 million, then four-wheel drive vehicles (BD12 million) and private cars (BD8 million).

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos last week, Bahrain’s minister of finance Shaikh Salman bin Khalifa Al Khalifa revealed that the country’s non-oil economy grew by 4.5 percent in the third quarter of last year, according to a report from the Bahrain News Agency.