According to the preliminary data released by the Kuwaiti Finance Ministry, Kuwait's budget deficit accounted to 745.5 million Kuwaiti dinars ($2.4 billion) in the current fiscal year between April and October.
After the compulsory transfers of the Reserve Fund for Future Generations (equivalent to 10 percent of total revenues), the deficit rises to about KD 1.8 billion (about $6 billion), and the deficit was financed mainly through withdrawals from the General Reserve Fund, in the absence of any treasury bills issuance or local bonds during the current fiscal year, due to the expiration of the Public Debt Law.
The total revenues in 7 months accounted for 64.1 percent of the estimated revenues in the fiscal year 2019-2020 budget, which assumed the price of a barrel of oil at $55 per barrel, to about 10.1 billion dinars ($33.3 billion), slightly higher than expected, despite Kuwait's crude export prices dropped from $71.2 per barrel in April to $60.5 per barrel in October, while the production was limited to about 2.69 million barrels per day.
Source (Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper, Edited)
