DUBAI: Bahrain’s economic growth accelerated strongly in the first quarter of 2013, helped by a revival of oil output, official data showed yesterday.
Gross domestic product, adjusted for inflation, expanded 2.5 percent quarter-on-quarter in January-March, compared to a downwardly revised 0.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012.
On an annual basis, growth quickened to 4.2 percent in the first three months of 2013, the highest rate in a year, from a downwardly revised 2.5 percent in the previous quarter, the data from the Central Informatics Organisation showed.
The country of 1.3 million people has based its economic strategy on becoming a regional financial hub as it lacks much of the petrodollar wealth of its Arab neighbours.
Output in the hydrocarbons sector, which accounts for a quarter of Bahrain’s $30bn economy, grew 1.3 percent in January-March from the previous quarter, against a mere 0.4 percent rise in the final three months of 2012.
Hydrocarbon output jumped 8.0 percent on an annual basis in the first quarter after falling by the same amount in October-December. Last year, Bahrain reported a drop in crude oil output from its key Abu Safa field, which contributes nearly 67 percent of budget revenue.
Analysts polled by Reuters in April forecast that Bahrain’s GDP growth would ease slightly to 3.3 percent in 2013 from 3.4 percent in 2012.
Saudi Mobily in $650m financing deal
DUBAI: Saudi Arabia’s Mobily has signed memorandum of understandings with Nokia Siemens Networks and Ericsson to fund the purchase of $650m of equipment from the firms, the telecom operator said yesterday.
Mobily, also known as Etihad Etisalat, said it would work with the Finland and Sweden export credit agencies to finalise the 10-year sharia-compliant facilities.
The operator, an affiliate of the United Arab Emirates’ Etisalat, said the deal would be the first of its kind in Saudi Arabia’s telecom sector and would boost the company’s free cash flow.
Mobily has mandated Credit Agricole and Deutsche Bank to structure and arrange the facility.
Agencies
