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Economy, Money, Banking & Taxes

Money

Bahrain used the Bahraini Dinar (currency code: BHD) which can be divided down into 1000 Bahraini Fils. BHD 1 is equivalent to around $2.65 or £1.58.
Coins come in 5 and 10 fils amounts in Brass, 25 and 50 fils amounts in Cupro-Nickel, 100 films in bimetallic Brass and Cupro-Nickel.
Bank notes are available in 500 fils, 1 Dinar, 5 Dinar, 10 Dinar and 20 Dinar variants.

Economy

Bahrain’s main economic produce comes in the form of Petroleum exportation and exports of similar products as well as Aluminium and Textiles. In regards to oil exportation, Bahrain has seen an annual economic growth of 5.5% since 2001 and trades mainly with Saudi Arabia, India and the United Arab Emirates at 3%, 2.2% and 2% of all trades between these nations respectively.

Oil makes up 27% of all exports, but a substantial amount of trades are made up with Iron ores at 11%, as well as around 3% which are petroleum gases. Additionally, around 8.4% are refined variants of aluminium with another 8.2% as unrefined variants, 6.5% are made up of Aluminium plates and sheets, around 5% of trades are Aluminium wires of various kinds and another 5% makes up many other Aluminium products, pipes, scrap and such. The remaining 25% of trade is split fairly evenly between air conditioners, cars, minerals and chemicals, acidic alcohol, cheese, food preparation materials and women’s clothing.

Banking

Like many other Middle Eastern nations, cities are developed widely in Bahrain and thus ATMs are widespread, however, using another bank’s ATM may incur a fee for doing so.

Also similarly to other nearby Middle Eastern nations, as well as most countries in the west, Bahraini banks offer three types of bank accounts including Current Accounts, Savings Accounts and Fixed Deposit Accounts.

Current Accounts are the most flexible and usually come with an unlimited amount of free withdrawals during the day. However these accounts typically have the lowest interest rates.

Savings Accounts are more balanced out and allow less free withdrawals during day-to-day life but in return tend to offer much better interest rates.
Fixed Deposit Accounts restrict the user to a few, or only one, withdrawal a year. However, in return for this solidarity, the bank will typically offer the highest interest rates available but will normally expect regular deposits to be made into the account.

Taxes

In Bahrain, there is no form of personal, corporate, withholding or value added tax at all. However, a municipal tax of 10% on the monthly rental of residential and business properties is applicable and a 5% tax on all hotel services and entertainment is also applicable. Generally speaking, a tax rate of around 5% is applied to all imported goods, but many food products, capital goods, raw materials and medicines are exempt from this.