Bahrain's Cabinet approved an extra BD325 million ($862 million) budget allocation to cover public sector pay increases, while also raising the borrowing ceiling from BD2,500 million to BD3,500 million to pay for National Dialogue initiatives.

Chairing yesterday's (August 7) session, His Royal Highness Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa urged all ministries and government agencies to speed up implementation of National Dialogue 'visions'.

The Cabinet devoted a major part of the session to this topic, salary increases, improvement of living standards and development of internal control and governance.

It subsequently approved an additional BD325 million in the 2011-12 budget to cover an increase in salaries.

Ministers also agreed to raise the ceiling of current borrowing of BD2,500 million to BD3,500 million by the issuance of bonds and financing tools compatible with Islamic law.

The Cabinet finally discussed development of revenue sources and ways of financing emerging costs, including the pay rises after reviewing a memo by the Finance Minister.

Proposed action to ensure funding were referred to the ministerial committee for economic and financial affairs and the ministerial committee for legal affairs. – TradeArabia News Service