The report issued by the Central Bank of Kuwait showed, last March, Kuwait's foreign assets decreased by 2.7 billion dollars on a monthly basis, or by 5.74 percent, to reach their lowest levels since April 2020.
According to the report, reserve assets decreased to 13.45 billion dinars (44.7 billion dollars) until the end of last March, while the reserves amounted to 14.27 billion dinars (47.5 billion dollars) in February.
On an annual basis, reserves increased by 10.4 percent by the end of March, compared to 12.18 billion dinars (40.5 billion dollars) during the same month of 2020.
Kuwait’s reserves included 12.63 billion dinars (42 billion dollars) of deposits and currencies, 573.4 million dinars of special drawing rights for Kuwait with the International Monetary Fund, and 211.8 million dinars as a balance with the International Monetary Fund. While Kuwait’s gold reserves (calculated at book value since its purchase) amounted to 31.7 million dinars (104 million dollars) at the end of March.
Kuwait is experiencing one of its worst economic crises, due to the effects of the Corona virus and the drop in oil prices, the main source of more than 90 percent of government revenues, which may push it to resort to liquidating sovereign assets to fill the budget deficit.
Source (Al-Araby Al-Jadeed Newspaper, Edited)
