Bahrain’s value of imports reached nearly BD439 million ($1.160 billion) in October this year, while the value of exported national origin goods reached BD170 million ($449.3 million).

The top 10 countries account for 67 per cent of the imports value, according to the Foreign Trade Report of October 2017 issued by Bahrain’s Information & eGovernment Authority (iGA). It covers balance of trade, imports, exports and re-exports (national origin) goods.

According to the report, China topped the list of exporters to Bahrain with BD53 million ($140.1 million); the UAE came second with BD36 million ($95.16 million) and Japan ranked third with BD35 million ($92.5 million).

Non-agglomerated ores and concentrates emerged as the top product imported to Bahrain with BD24 million ($63.4 million), while four-wheel drive cars came second with BD23 million ($60.8 million), and AC generators stood third with BD14 million ($37.01 million).

The top 10 countries account for 82 per cent of the exported national origin goods. Saudi Arabia ranked top among the countries importing from Bahrain with BD41 million ($108.3 million); Oman stood second with BD26 million ($68.7 million) and the US was placed third with BD16 million ($42.2 million).

As for exported products, agglomerated iron ores and concentrates emerged as the top products exported in October 2017 with BD32 million ($84.5 million); aluminium wires ranked second with a value of BD23 million ($60.8 million); whereas semi-finishing iron and steel came in at third place for exported products with BD15 million ($39.6 million).

Additionally, the value of the re-exported products reached BD47 million ($124.2 million). The top 10 countries account for 93 per cent of the re-exported value and 7 per cent for other countries.

Saudi Arabia was ranked as the first country to re-export from Bahrain with BD22 million ($58.1 million), China came in second with BD8 million ($21.1 million), and the UAE came third with BD6 million ($15.8 million).

Four-wheel drive cars emerged as the top product re-exported from Bahrain with BD11.3 million ($29.8 million), cigarettes came as second products with BD3 million ($7.93 million) and public type vehicles with compression-ignition comes in as third with BD2.1 million ($5.55 million).

The trade deficit increased in in October 2017 and reached BD222 million ($586.8 million), it stated. – TradeArabia News Service