RIYADH: Bahrain has started talks with banks over a potential international debt sale in the second half of this year, Bloomberg reported citing people familiar with the matter.

The discussions are still preliminary, the people said, asking to remain anonymous as plans are private.

This debt sale would bring some relief to Bahrain after witnessing a sharp deterioration in finances during 2020 amid widespread lockdowns imposed by the pandemic, which curbed demand for energy and dragged Brent crude to the lowest level in about two decades.

The last time the Bahraini Kingdom tapped the international debt market was in January, when it raised $2 billion.

Bahrain鈥檚 2020 budget deficit of 1.6 billion dinars ($4.2 billion) exceeded the government鈥檚 projection in its fiscal plan.

Moody鈥檚 Investors Service and S&P Global Ratings lowered the country鈥檚 outlook to negative in the last few weeks.