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Bahrain Approves Four-year Action Plan, Focused on Private Sector

Bahrain Approves Four-year Action Plan, Focused on Private Sector
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Bahrain Approves Four-year Action Plan, Focused on Private Sector

Bahrain Approves Four-year Action Plan, Focused on Private Sector

The Bahraini Cabinet held Thursday an exceptional session, chaired by Bahrain's Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa.

The session was dedicated to discuss the 2019-2022 Government Action Plan, which was approved and referred to the parliament.

The plan focuses on empowering the private sector, elevating the government work-environment, enhancing investment climate, cutting down expenditures, and exploiting water resources.

The government seeks to implement a four-year action plan that bolsters the Fiscal Balance Program launched in October 2018 and funded by Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Kuwait.

To ensure fiscal balance in Bahrain, the program grants the kingdom USD10 billion to achieve the balance between expenditures and government revenues by 2022.

At the beginning of 2019, Bahrain started applying the value-added tax (VAT), which is expected to add to the treasury BHD300 million (USD796 million) in this year.

Earlier, the Bahrain Economic Development Board forecast real GDP growth of 3.4 percent in 2018 and 2.8 percent in 2019.

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Lebanon Bonds Rally to Fresh Two-year High on Ceasefire Hopes

A man counts Lebanese pounds at a currency exchange shop in Beirut, Lebanon October 1, 2020. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
A man counts Lebanese pounds at a currency exchange shop in Beirut, Lebanon October 1, 2020. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
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Lebanon Bonds Rally to Fresh Two-year High on Ceasefire Hopes

A man counts Lebanese pounds at a currency exchange shop in Beirut, Lebanon October 1, 2020. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
A man counts Lebanese pounds at a currency exchange shop in Beirut, Lebanon October 1, 2020. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir

Lebanon's deeply distressed sovereign dollar bonds hit a fresh two-year high on Tuesday as investors bet that a potential ceasefire with Israel could improve the country's prospects.

The bonds, which are still trading below 10 cents on the dollar, have gained more than 3% this week. The 2031 maturity was biding at 9.3 cents on the dollar, its highest since May 2022, according to Reuters.

"Some investors are mulling if it is a right time to buy, since a ceasefire is the first step needed to at some point in time restructure bonds," said Bruno Gennari, emerging markets strategist with KNG Securities International.

Israel's cabinet is expected to convene on Tuesday to discuss, and likely approve, a US plan for a ceasefire with the Iran-backed Hezbollah, a senior Israeli official said.

Israeli airstrikes, which continued on Tuesday, have decimated Lebanon's infrastructure and killed thousands.

But the counterintuitive rally, the second since Israel began bombing the country in September, was driven by bets that the deal could jolt Lebanon's fractured political system and revive efforts to pull the country out of default.