Kuwait Draft Budget Estimates Deficit: Report

Kuwait’s draft budget for 2023-2024 estimates a deficit of 6.8 billion dinars (US$22.15 billion), hit by lower oil prices and volumes, a local paper reported, citing a member of parliament. The draft budget for the year from April 1 estimates oil revenue of 17 billion dinars (US$55.4 billion), down 19.5% from 2022-2023, according to the report by Al-Dustor shared by parliament’s Twitter account, citing MP Osama Al-Zaid.

The draft budget was based on an oil price of US$70 a barrel, Aal-Zaid told Al-Dustor. Brent crude was trading at US$78.44 at 1600 GMT on Monday.  Kuwait has had to comply with production cuts by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies led by Russia while making slow progress on diversifying revenue sources compared with its GCC neighbors.

Feuding between successive appointed governments and elected parliaments in the OPEC member state has hampered fiscal reform for years, including a debt law that would allow Kuwait to tap international markets and address its heavy reliance on oil. Non-oil revenue was expected at 2.2 billion dinars (US$7.2 billion), up 10% year on year, while expenditure was projected to rise by 11.7% to 26.2 billion dinars (US$85.3 billion), the report said.

Kuwait last month elected its third parliament in two and a half years. Sheikh Ahmad Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah was then reappointed as prime minister and formed a cabinet with a new oil minister, Saad Al-Barrak. Al-Barrak last week said that Kuwait will invest more than US$300 billion in the energy sector by 2040. He also said it hopes to have a higher oil production quota when it ramps up capacity, adding that this was not urgent and that Kuwait is committed to OPEC decisions.