The Kuwaiti Cabinet ordered all government agencies to reduce their spending from the current fiscal year 2021-2022 budget, by no less than 10 percent.
The cabinet took the decision, after studying recommendations from the Economic Affairs Committee regarding the lack of liquidity in the general reserve, and the need to find radical solutions to confront the deficit in the state budget.
Kuwait's budget recorded an actual deficit of 10.8 billion dinars ($35.5 billion) in the 2020-2021 fiscal year, an increase of 174.8 percent, according to the Kuwaiti Ministry of Finance.
The council agreed to reconsider the list of prices for state rents, lands and buildings, after studying the recommendation of the Economic Affairs Committee regarding the lack of liquidity in the public reserve. It also decided to assign the Public Authority for Manpower to study the possibility of stopping the disbursement of national labor support to workers in the private sector for those whose total salary is 3000 dinars (about 10,000 dollars) and more.
The Governor of the Central Bank of Kuwait, Mohammed Al-Hashel, emphasized that "Kuwait needs urgent reforms to put its financial conditions on a more sustainable ground, as monetary tools are insufficient to face the structural challenges." The World Bank also expected, in a recent report, that Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman, the countries that recorded the largest deficits in public budgets in 2020, will continue to record deficits throughout the years 2021-2023.
Source (The New Arab Newspaper, Edited)
