Kuwait asks ministries to cut spending by 10% amid budget gap

Kuwait’s cabinet instructed state entities to reduce spending by at least 10 per cent in an attempt to cut its budget deficit, state-run Kuwait News Agency reported.

The OPEC member posted record KD10.8bn ($36bn) budget deficit in 2020, up 175 per cent from a year earlier. It has been battling to reduce the gap due to its dependence on oil revenues, and high spending on civil servant wages and subsidies.

The measures include:

• Limiting spending on local and international events and exhibitions and travel expenses
• Cutting spending on overseas training, foreign missions and medical treatment for nationals
• Taking steps to ensure debts due to the state are collected
• Revision of incentives to top state officials and rents for state-owned real estate
• Assessment and possible halting of financial incentives to nationals employed in the private sector whose wages exceed KD3,000
• Establishing a sovereign credit rating governance committee

Last month, Kuwait was downgraded by S&P Global Ratings for a second time in less than two years. The rating agency said the downgrade reflects “the persistent lack of a comprehensive funding strategy despite the central government’s ongoing sizable deficits.”