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GDP growth in the GCC region is expected to improve this year after seeing healthy growth in 2013, according to a report by KAMCO Research.
Economic activity in the region is expected to strengthen in the near term as some of the recent initiatives to diversify the economy start showing results in addition to the gradual economic recovery of GCC trading partners.
Further, as a sign of confidence, the IMF upgraded its 2014 GDP growth forecast for Saudi Arabia during July 2014, the region’s largest economy, to 4.6 per cent from its previous forecast of 4.1 per cent on the back of stronger than expected growth in the private sector.
Bahrain, it says, is expected to post above average growth in real GDP of 4.69 per cent for 2014 as compared to other GCC economies. GDP during the second quarter of 2014 increased to BD3.2 billion, a strong Q-o-Q growth of 4.12 per cent as compared to BD3.1billion seen during the first quarter of the year. Further, both the components of the GDP – the oil and the non-oil sector – witnessed strong improvement during the quarter. Oil GDP improved by a strong 7.9 per cent from BD796.7 million during Q1-14 to BD859.7 million during Q2-14.
“Bahrain bourse has shown decent growth in 2014 with the market index reporting a gain of 18.2 per cent till the end of September, following the growth of 17.2 per cent recorded in FY2013,” said Faisal Hasan, senior vice president, Investment Research Department.
