Kuwait’s Minister of Finance and Minister of State for Economic and Investment Affairs, Dr. Anwar Al-Mudhaf, emphasized the government’s commitment to reducing the budget deficit by optimizing spending. The goal is to maintain annual government expenditure at approximately 24.5 billion Kuwaiti dinars, address financial wastage, and enhance and diversify income sources to achieve 10% non-oil revenues from the GDP by 2030.
This statement was made during the first Public Budget Forum organized by the Kuwaiti Ministry of Finance. The forum aimed to direct government entities in implementing the current fiscal year’s budget according to decisions, circulars, and budget execution rules, thereby ensuring spending efficiency and addressing areas of wastage and concerns raised by regulatory bodies.
Dr. Al-Mudhaf explained that Kuwait aims to achieve fiscal sustainability by stabilizing government spending at around 24.5 billion Kuwaiti dinars (approximately 80 billion US dollars). The strategy includes diversifying income sources and doubling non-oil revenues to about 4 billion dinars (approximately 13 billion US dollars) by the fiscal year 2027-2028 and to 10% of the GDP by 2030, up from the current 4%.
He noted a decrease in liquidity rates in the General Reserve due to continued withdrawals, with the General Reserve’s balance for the fiscal year 2023-2024 standing at 2 billion dinars (approximately 6.5 billion US dollars), compared to 33.6 billion dinars (approximately 109.8 billion US dollars) in 2014-2015.
Dr. Al-Mudhaf highlighted the importance of controlling the fiscal deficit to ensure the future sustainability of public finances. He projected the cumulative deficit from the fiscal year 2015-2016 to 2023-2024 to exceed 30 billion dinars (approximately 98 billion US dollars), with expectations that it could reach more than 26 billion dinars (approximately 84.9 billion US dollars) from 2025-2026 to 2028-2029.
Regarding this fiscal year’s revenues, Dr. Al-Mudhaf anticipates about 18.9 billion dinars (approximately 61.7 billion US dollars), with expected increases in subsequent years. Estimated state expenditures for the current fiscal year are set at 24.5 billion dinars (approximately 80 billion US dollars), with projected increases in future years.
