Kuwaiti Minister of Finance, Khalifa Hamadeh, affirmed that Kuwait’s financial position is "strong and solid" because it is fully supported by the Future Generations Reserve Fund, which is witnessing continuous growth. Expecting a cumulative deficit of 55.4 billion dinars (183 billion dollars) in the next five years, explaining that the total expected expenses for the five years amounted to 114.1 billion dinars, of which 81 billion dinars were for salaries and support.
H.E. Hamadeh stressed the need to address the scarcity of financial resources and the lack of liquidity in the treasury (the general reserve fund) in cooperation with the National Assembly and as soon as possible, calling for the importance of liquidity treatments to be accompanied by radical economic and financial reforms that contribute to reducing expenditures and increasing non-oil revenues.
He added, "We are responsible for fulfilling our obligations without any negligence or harm, as the aim of government actions in terms of confronting liquidity options is to protect low and middle income citizens from prejudice and accelerate the pace of economic reforms to ensure the well-being of citizens."
Kuwait is trying to cover the public budget deficit by exchanging some assets and withdrawing from the sovereign wealth fund, at a time when the confrontation between the government and parliament is prompting the Council of Ministers to search for measures to alleviate the financial crisis in the country, while structural reforms are still not making progress. Kuwait, whose economy has been hit hard by the drop in crude prices and the repercussions of the Covid-19 pandemic, faces liquidity risks in the short term, largely due to the National Assembly (parliament) not allowing the government to borrow.
Source (Al-Arabiya.net, Edited)
