Mubasher: Kuwait announced that the projected budget deficit for its fiscal year starting 1 April 2019 would fall to KWD 7.7 billion ($25.4 billion), 2.1% lower than the current year’s estimate.
This is after allocating 10% of total revenues to Kuwait’s Future Generations Fund.
However, spending is expected to surge 4.7% to KWD 22.5 billion, which is lower than the projected KWD 30.5 billion, Bloomberg reported citing the Gulf nation’s finance minister Nayef Al-Hajraf as saying.
“The new budget aims to drive economic growth by maintaining a high capex ratio of 17%,” Al-Hajraf stated, noting that the new budget would see “tightening controls to curb wasteful spending and continue to gradually introduce fiscal reform.”
Kuwait’s oil price is estimated to be $55 per barrel (pb), while oil income is expected to stand at KWD 14.52 billion.
Since the sharp plunge in oil prices in mid-2014, which prompted a budget deficit for the first time in years, Kuwait started to manage its subsidies and impose taxes.
