Standard & Poor's revealed that the Gulf government debt issuances will meet about 60 percent of the funding requirements of $490 billion during the years 2020 to 2023, expecting that Bahrain, Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia will finance the vast majority of their deficit through debt, while Abu Dhabi and Kuwait will benefit more from their assets.
The agency expected that Kuwait would withdraw more than 70 percent of its GDP from its assets, and about 6 percent as debt issues. It also expected that the debt law would pass and that Kuwait would start issuing its bonds again in the international capital markets in 2021.
According to agency estimates, the assets of the Kuwaiti sovereign wealth fund are 450 percent of GDP in 2019. However, part of these assets readily available for budget needs through the general reserve fund can be fully depleted by the end of 2020.
According to the agency, Kuwait is the highest in terms of the deficit to GDP ratio by 39 percent, followed by the Sultanate of Oman with 17 percent, Saudi Arabia 15 percent, Abu Dhabi by 13 percent, Bahrain 12 percent, and Qatar 10 percent.
Source (Al-Rai Newspaper-Kuwait, Edited)
