Bahrain releases its budget for 1999-2000

Bahraini Emir Sheikh Issa Bin Salman al-Khalifa has issued a presidential decree on the state's general budget for the fiscal years 1999 and 2000, during which deficit increased to 160 million dinars in each of the two years.

Bahrain's minister of finance and national economy, Ibrahim Abdul Karim, said that the budget was drafted in very critical conditions as a result of the deterioration in the oil prices.

The state's general budget was estimated at 1,458 million dinars of which some 726 million dinars are for the year 1999 and 732 million dinars for the year 2000 with a reduction of 0.6% in the 1999 budget over that of 1998 and a small increase over the 2000 budget estimated at 0.3%.