Bahrain's Economy Is Holding Up Well

Not many Americans have even heard of Bahrain, let alone thought about investing in the country, but while Dubai has been faltering badly, Bahrain is holding up well. Investors interested in the Middle East might want to give Bahrain a closer look, especially if they are considering investing in Dubai. For more on this, read the following article from Overseas Property Mall.

Bahrain has long been the forgotten little brother of glittery Dubai in the housing investment industry. For years we have been told countless stories on why we had to buy property in Dubai and all the while Bahrain has quietly sneaked up in the housing stakes.

Since reports of a falling Dubai have become stronger every month, Bahrain has only suffered “small damage”. After having spent many years in its bigger brothers shadow, Bahrain is ready to raise the stakes and claim back some of its past status as a strong and reliable financial business center in the Arabian world.

The Bahrain Economic Development Board’s chief operating officer Kamal Ahmed said:

“In tough times, people want to be in the most stable place. Of course, nobody is immune to the crisis, but we have certainly shown we are less exposed.”

The CBB (Central Bank of Bahrain) has established itself as one of the better regulators if we are to believe the latest news reports from the Middle East due to the lack of available finance overall. Some even say that Dubai’s loss has resulted into being Bahrain’s gain but clearly it is early days at the moment. Signs are positive though and industry watchers are positive that Bahrain might attract more investors in the next year due to its stable economy despite the global crisis elsewhere.

Ahmed further stated that it wasn’t the banks fault that Bahrain has lacked the attention it supposedly deserves but more so the lack of media attention overall.

The World Bank also helped to establish Bahrain as a strong business center by ranking it 18th in the world for doing business with last year. Another encouraging sign of a stable economy is the number of new lending institutions licensed in 2008. There were a total of 44 new start ups compared to 38 start ups in 2007.

Bahrain’s financial specialty if one could say that is Islamic finance. The launch of the Bahrain Financial Exchange in 2010 will also see the position of this small emirate strengthened overall.

But even so Bahrain’s economy is relative stable, the emirate has experienced plenty of heartache in the banking sector too. Profit margins of banks declined by 17.6 percent in 2008. During the same time, retail banks saw a surge of 112 percent in loan to deposit ratios.

Some financial organizations are also being scrutinized by the Bahrain government. With over 400 institutions in the country, there are too many right now to satisfy the lack of demand while showing healthy growth over time so eventually some of them will take the fall for sure.

This post can also be viewed on overseaspropertymall.com.