Bonds Are Helping These Gulf States Delay Reforms - Bloomberg

Bonds Are Helping These Gulf States Delay Reforms - Bloomberg:

"Access to a debt market teeming with yield-hungry investors is helping some cash-strapped nations in the Gulf Cooperation Council kick reforms down the road. Taking advantage of attractive interest rates, Oman raised $6.5 billion in January, its biggest sale on record, to help bridge deficits. And Bahrain, the smallest of the GCC’s six nations, tapped the international bond markets for $3.6 billion in 2017. It may issue this year to help meet funding needs. Junk-rated Oman and Bahrain have the weakest finances in the GCC and face making politically unpopular decisions such as freezing public sector employment and cut spending significantly. They have been slow to implement reforms compared with their richer neighbors such as Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi, which have slashed expenditure, rolled back some subsidies and introduced value added tax."



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