Kuwait has announced a state budget for the year ending on March 31, 2019 with a deficit of 17.00 billion dollars or 6.556 billion dinars.
The petroleum-based economic country on Monday projected spending at 20 billion dinars ($66.7 billion) and revenues at 15 billion dinars.
The Kuwaiti Finance Minister Nayef al-Hajraf said the budget would be based on an average oil price of $50 per barrel, and that the deficit would be financed by borrowing and using reserves.
The 5 billion-dinar deficit would be before the transfer of 10 per cent of revenues to Kuwait’s sovereign wealth fund, reports Reuters.
The budget deficit for the current fiscal year, which ends on March 31, 2018, was estimated at 17.00 billion dollars before the 10 per cent deposit into the sovereign wealth fund, , according to a calculation by Reuters.
Hajraf said that subsidies are projected at 3.432 billion dinars of the budget.
The budget for the current fiscal year was estimated based on an oil price of $45.
Oil revenues are expected to reach 13.3 billion dinars, up from 11.7 billion dinars a year ago. Non-oil income is projected to remain almost flat at 1.6 billion dinars.
