Kuwaiti Finance Minister Mariam Aqeel Al-Aqeel revealed that Kuwait expects a deficit of 9.2 billion dinars ($30.33 billion) in its budget for the next fiscal year beginning April 1, after depositing ten percent of the total revenue in the sovereign wealth fund.
This would increase the deficit by 19 percent compared to the previous year, as Kuwait expected it to have a deficit of 7.7 billion dinars.
Al-Aqeel pointed out that "Kuwait expects to spend 22.5 billion dinars in the new budget 2020-2021," noting that "the new budget is based on an assumed price of a barrel of oil of 55 dollars, a decrease from 65 to 55 dollars per barrel assumed by Kuwait in its previous budget." She added, "It is expected that oil will contribute 87.3 percent of the total revenue."
Minister Al-Aqeel explained, "the deficit of 2020-2021 will be covered by the Kuwaiti General Reserve Fund, which is the most recent wealth fund managed by the General Investment Authority."
Kuwait is considered a major source of oil, but it was affected when the prices fell down in 2014 and 2015, but it did not resort to the global debt markets since selling eight billion dollars in debt for the first time in 2017, as the Parliament has not yet ratified a law to raise the debt ceiling and issue instruments with longer maturities.
Source (Arabic CNBC website, Edited)
