Oil price gains enabled Kuwait to secure a 19.4% year-on-year real terms fall in its budget deficit for the year to 31 March 2018. The Ministry of Finance this week announced that the deficit fell from $19.5bn to $16bn. Predictably the deficit was much smaller than the $26.1bn laid out in the original 2017-18 budget law which underestimated oil prices and overestimated Kuwait’s capacity to implement planned investment (MEES, 16 June 2017).
The final deficit of $16bn includes the mandatory allocation of 10% of total budget revenue to the Reserve Fund for Future Generations (RFFG), which is managed by the Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA), the emirate’s sovereign wealth fund. (CONTINUED - 811 WORDS)
