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Bahrain's Economy Achieves Growth of 2.4%

Bahrain’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) registered an annual increase of 2.4 percent in 2023. Asharq Al-Awsat
Bahrain’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) registered an annual increase of 2.4 percent in 2023. Asharq Al-Awsat
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Bahrain's Economy Achieves Growth of 2.4%

Bahrain’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) registered an annual increase of 2.4 percent in 2023. Asharq Al-Awsat
Bahrain’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) registered an annual increase of 2.4 percent in 2023. Asharq Al-Awsat

Bahrain’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) registered an annual increase of 2.4 percent in 2023 to hit 13.66 billion dinars ($36.24 billion), official data showed.

National accounts estimates issued by the Information and eGovernment Authority (iGA) also showed that financial projects are among the largest non-oil sectors contributing to the real GDP with 17.8%, followed by the manufacturing industry with 13.6%.

According to preliminary national accounts estimates, the sectors with the highest non-oil growth were the hotels and restaurants sector, with a growth rate of 8%, followed by government services with a growth rate of 6%, and then financial projects with a rate of 5.7% at constant prices.

Comparing the estimates of the fourth quarter of 2023 with the corresponding quarter of 2022, there was a positive growth in GDP estimated at 3.45% and 3.36% at constant and current prices, respectively. The non-oil sector recorded a growth of 4.03% at constant prices and 3.89% at current prices.

Comparing the economic performance of the fourth quarter of 2023 with the third quarter, there was a real growth in Bahrain's GDP by an estimated rate of 4.61%. This is due to the rise achieved by the non-oil sector of 5.14% at constant prices and 6.19% at current prices.

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Trump Taps Scott Bessent for Treasury

(FILES) Scott Bessent, head of Key Square Group and former chief investment officer of Soros Fund Management, attends the second day of the annual Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference, July 12, 2017 in Sun Valley, Idaho.(Photo by Drew ANGERER / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP)
(FILES) Scott Bessent, head of Key Square Group and former chief investment officer of Soros Fund Management, attends the second day of the annual Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference, July 12, 2017 in Sun Valley, Idaho.(Photo by Drew ANGERER / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP)
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Trump Taps Scott Bessent for Treasury

(FILES) Scott Bessent, head of Key Square Group and former chief investment officer of Soros Fund Management, attends the second day of the annual Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference, July 12, 2017 in Sun Valley, Idaho.(Photo by Drew ANGERER / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP)
(FILES) Scott Bessent, head of Key Square Group and former chief investment officer of Soros Fund Management, attends the second day of the annual Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference, July 12, 2017 in Sun Valley, Idaho.(Photo by Drew ANGERER / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP)

President-elect Donald Trump on Friday said he will nominate prominent investor Scott Bessent as US Treasury secretary, a key cabinet position with vast influence over economic, regulatory and international affairs.

"I am most pleased to nominate Scott Bessent to serve as the 79th Secretary of the Treasury of the United States," Trump said in a statement released on Truth Social. "Scott is widely respected as one of the world's foremost international investors and geopolitical and economic strategists."

Wall Street has been closely watching who Trump will pick, especially given his plans to remake global trade through tariffs and extend and potentially expand the raft of tax cuts enacted during his first term, Reuters reported
The choice came after days of deliberations by Trump as he sorted through a shifting list of candidates. Bessent spent day after day at Trump's Mar-a-Lago home in Florida providing economic advice, sources said, a proximity to the president-elect that may have helped him prevail.
Other names that had been floated included Apollo Global Management Chief Executive Marc Rowan and former Federal Reserve Governor Kevin Warsh. Investor John Paulson had also been a leading candidate, but dropped out, while Wall Street veteran Howard Lutnick, another contender, was appointed as head of the Commerce Department.
Bessent, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment, has advocated for tax reform and deregulation, particularly to spur more bank lending and energy production, as noted in a recent opinion piece he wrote for The Wall Street Journal.
The market's surge after Trump's election victory, he wrote, signaled investor expectations of "higher growth, lower volatility and inflation, and a revitalized economy for all Americans."
"Bessent has been on the side of less aggressive tariffs," said Oxford Economics' Ryan Sweet, adding that picking him makes the steep tariffs Trump proposed on the campaign trail less likely.
Bessent follows other financial luminaries who have taken the job, including former Goldman Sachs executives Robert Rubin, Hank Paulson and Steven Mnuchin, Trump's first Treasury chief. Janet Yellen, the current secretary and first woman in the job, previously chaired the Federal Reserve and White House Council of Economic Advisers.
Republican US Senator Lindsey Graham from South Carolina, Bessent's home state, said in a statement: "President Trump's economic agenda is in good hands with Scott Bessent. I look forward to working closely with Scott and President Trump to lower inflation and create the golden age of prosperity for the American people."