Bahrain markets not seriously affected by global crisis

Manama, Bahrain: Bahrain's finance market has not been seriously affected by the global financial crisis thanks to its conservative policies and the close supervision by the central bank, a senior analyst has said.

"The current situation of Bahrain is positive and we are faring better than everybody else in the region. While other stock markets in Saudi Arabia for example witnessed a decline, the market here has been only slightly affected and has managed to keep to the fewest losses among all bourses," Jassem Hussain, the former head of the business research unity at the University of Bahrain, told Gulf News.

"Bahrain is a traditionally conservative market, unlike the other markets, which minimizes risks. At the same time, the Central Bank of Bahrain has always followed a very good control policy, with day-to-day close monitoring. This has greatly helped to contain possible damage," he said.

According to the analyst who sits on the parliament's financial committee, the Bahraini market is at times influenced by developments in Kuwait and by Kuwaiti investors.

"There are many Kuwaiti investors in Bahrain while some companies trade in the Kuwaiti market, which means some form of influence," he said.

However, Jassem said that the real consequences of the global market in Bahrain will be felt in the 2008 reports.

"There are some companies and banks that had bought security papers, but as these papers have lost some of their value, there will certainly be a decline in the profits for 2008," he said.

Companies that understood that there was something "fishy" in the market and quickly got rid of the papers will not be affected.