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Kuwaiti Finance Minister Khalifa Hamadeh said the recent increase in oil revenues did not cover budgetary obligations and “did not delay or reduce the resolution” to enact laws to provide liquidity to the public treasury.
The minister said in a statement today, Wednesday that the breakeven point in the state budget for fiscal year 2021-2022 is $ 90 per barrel of oil “until the budget deficit becomes zero “.
He added that measures such as the issuance of bonds “are not seen as reform solutions, but rather temporary measures that must be taken to fulfill immediate obligations”, such as salaries and subsidies, which constitute more than 71% of total public expenditure.
In addition, the Standard & Poor’s rating agency predicted that Kuwait would borrow about $ 3.3 billion this year.
The agency said in a report that Kuwait borrowed long-term commercial debt in 2016 and 2017 amounting to $ 8.1 billion and $ 14.8 billion, respectively, and accounted for 100 percent of sovereign debt. Kuwaiti total, while he did not borrow during the following period. three years, which are 2018 and 2019. And 2020 due to the end of the public debt law and the opposition the government faces in Parliament.
He said the long-term commercial sovereign debt of Gulf Cooperation Council countries in 2020 was around $ 90.6 billion, according to the Al-Anbaa newspaper.
In its recent report, the agency estimated that loans from 135 governments around the world ranked by the agency would reach about $ 12.6 trillion in the current year, which is a decrease of more than 20 % from historic levels recorded in 2020 when they reached $ 16.3 trillion, except that this number remains more than 50% higher than the average borrowing in the years leading up to the Covid-19 pandemic.
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