Bahrain's real economic growth reached an annual pace of 3.4 per cent for the first half of this year, which is an improvement on the 3.2 per cent achieved during 2016 as a whole, according to the latest Bahrain Economic Quarterly published by Bahrain's Economic Development Board (EDB).

Non-oil GDP growth performed more strongly and quickened during the first half of this year to 4.7 per cent, from 4 per cent for the whole of 2016.

The EDB says the non-oil growth was almost entirely due to activity in the private sector, underscoring the strength of structural and counter-cyclical growth drivers in the Bahraini economy.

Strong momentum was observed in sectors such as hotels and restaurants, social and personal services, and financial services, all of which expanded by more than 7 per cent year-on-year during the first half of 2017.

Bahrain’s economy is benefiting from a strong investment pipeline as well as important regulatory and institutional reforms.

Major infrastructure projects are particularly important and the EDB says Bahrain has an overall pipeline of infrastructure projects worth more than $32bn that are either under construction or scheduled for the near future.

“The fact that growth figures have once again surprised on the upside attests to the exceptional strength of the counter-cyclical growth drivers in the Bahraini economy, notably the unprecedented projects pipeline, led by major ventures such as the airport modernisation,” says Jarmo Kotilaine, chief economic adviser to the EDB.

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