Bahrain Pushes the GCC for a Bahrain Stability Fund……………
“Bahrain, the smallest economy in a six-nation Gulf Arab economic bloc, is pushing for the creation of a regional stability fund to counter potential fiscal crises, its finance minister said in published remarks. The fund should also work on bridging economic disparities among the member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Sheikh Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Khalifa said in an interview published on the bloc’s July news bulletin Almaseera. The GCC aims to forge an economic and monetary union emulating the euro zone, some of whose members have recently run into serious fiscal problems. Debt problems at Dubai’s flagship state conglomerate Dubai World have raised concern among officials in some GCC member states. “Bahrain put forward in December ... a proposal to set up a fund dedicated to support fiscal stability and economic growth in GCC countries. The proposal is currently under examination,” Sheikh Ahmed said in the undated interview. “The proposal aims mainly at creating a mechanism that would provide necessary support to member states if needed, in a way that would ensure both a convergence of economic models within the GCC and similar standards of living for its citizens,” he added. Bahrain is a small oil producer and does not have the fiscal clout of other GCC member states. It ran a budget deficit last year for the first time in at least four years as oil prices remained below its budget breakeven estimated at $70 to $80 per barrel, one of the highest in the Gulf. The fund would support any GCC member state affected by “urgent fiscal and economic crises…..”..……” The Peninsula
Bahrain is the only GCC country that could conceivably need to resort to such a stability fund. None of the other five states, possibly not even Oman, are likely to need it in the near future. Oman and the UAE, having opted out of the common currency plan, may not even agree. Besides, Bahrain has the Saudi patron to boost its tiny economy when needed.
The elites need to stop pumping up the Bahrain population with imported people, mostly surly people with some fundamentalist bent from places like Jordan and Pakistan in order to offset angry unemployed natives (mostly previously calm Shi’as). The resulting huge and artificial increase in population cannot be sustained by the country’s extremely limited resources. These resources cannot keep the avaricious elites in their palaces and sustain the huge surly influx from outside. Another Persian Gulf state followed this population policy a few decades ago, also for political reasons, and it has come to bite the elites.
Cheers
mhg
Mon Email
Comments