7 May 2020; MEMO: Bahrain has received $4.57 billion in urgent financial aid from its Gulf Arab neighbours as part of a support package approved in 2018, a government document revealed.
According to the document Bahrain’s foreign exchange reserves amounted to $3.7 billion at the end of December 2019.
The government is expected to withdraw another $1.76 billion from the Gulf support package this year.
In October 2018, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates agreed to give Bahrain $10 billion to execute a reform programme to support the country’s fiscal crisis and reduce its budget deficit by 2022.
The reform programme, sources said at the time, will include cutting the kingdom’s public expenditure and government waste, voluntary retirement for government workers and redirecting state subsidies.
