The Kingdom of Bahrain, even though it was the first Gulf country where oil was discovered in 1932, has quite scarce oil reserves. In fact the majority of oil derived income is related to the refining of crude oil, which is imported from Saudi Arabia to be then sold abroad once it has been refined.
Due to its limited oil reserves, until now main source of income for all the gulf countries, Bahrain diversified its economy staking particularly on the services sector.
The commercial relationships with Italy increased in the last few years and this is confirmed by the two commercial agreements signed in 2006, one on protection and promotion of investments, the other one on equality of treatment on anchorage and port taxes.
COMMERCIAL EXCHANGE
Bahrain’s economy strongly relies on import. The main supplier is Saudi Arabia from where Bahrain buys more than one third (34.8%) of its imported products. Other main suppliers are: Japan (6.9%), Germany (6.6%), United States (5.6%) and United Kingdom (4.1%).
The more imported products are: crude oil from Saudi Arabia, aluminium from Australia and gold.
The Kingdom of Bahrain exports small quantities of oil, oil refining products (which account for more than half of the total export), aluminium and base metals. Some of the countries Bahrain exports to are: India (3.3%), Japan (1.8%) and South Korea (1.9%) for oil products and aluminium; Saudi Arabia (3%) and USA (2.5%) for non-oil products.
The country has a commercial surplus of around 3.2 billion dollars (21% of GDP), which is though destined to diminish due to the increase of import. The estimates are of a commercial surplus of around 3 billion dollars for 2007 and around 2.5 billion dollars for 2008.
COMMERCIAL EXCHANGE WITH ITALY
Since 2004 commercial exchange between Italy and Bahrain increased, particularly Italian export towards Bahrain is constantly raising. Indeed, the growth rate for 2006 was 39.3%, meaning a value of 195.5 million Euros.
The main products Bahrain imports from Italy are:
- machinery and mechanical appliances;
- pipes and metallurgy products;
- food products;
- jewellery, particularly gold jewels;
- clothing and footwear;
- furniture.
Bahrain, on the other hand, exports to Italy metal products, textiles and oil refining products. In 2006 the overall value of Bahraini export towards Italy settled at 38.78 million Euros, suffering a loss of 26.4%.
The commercial exchange between the Kingdom of Bahrain and Italy in 2006 reached a total amount of 234 million Euros.
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credits | F.A.Q.