The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has revealed that Kuwait's Sovereign Wealth Fund is the world's largest in terms of the value of its managed assets relative to its gross domestic product (GDP), exceeding 400% according to the Sovereign Wealth Funds' Estimates announced by the Sovereign Wealth Institutes.
The Kuwaiti Sovereign Fund came in the first place with a big difference from the world's second fund, the Qatari Fund, whose assets were close to 180% of Qatar's GDP, followed by Libya's Sovereign Fund by nearly 150%, while the average of the MENA region, Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Caucasus and Central Asia slightly exceeded the 100%.
According to the report, the Kuwaiti banking sector is witnessing low levels of competition between the banks operating in the Kuwaiti market compared to levels of competition between the banks in the rest of the MENA region, according to the International Monetary Fund in its financial report for SMEs in the Middle East and Central Asia, in which Kuwait ranked last in the levels of competition between banks in the Middle East and North Africa.
Source (Al-Akhbar Newspaper – Kuwait, Edited)
