KUWAIT CITY, 2 April 2005 — Preliminary figures show that Kuwait earned $30 billion, mainly from oil, during its 2004-05 fiscal year that ended Thursday, independent economists said yesterday.
Based on Ministry of Finance projections released in February, Al- Shall Economic Consultants calculated that Kuwait earned between 8 billion and 8.25 billion dinars ($27.3 billion and $28.2 billion) in crude oil sales for the year.
Non-oil income was figured at 627 million dinars ($2.14 billion).
With total revenues estimated at between 8.75 billion and 9 billion dinars ($29.9 billion and $30.8 billion), and actual spending totaling 6.25 billion dinars ($21.4 billion), Kuwait will wind up with a (gross) surplus of between 2.5 billion and 2.75 billion dinars ($8.56 billion and $9.41 billion), the country’s sixth straight surplus, the consultants said in the report released yesterday.
An additional 200 million dinars will be added to the spending since the government recently gave all of its citizens a 200-dinar gift because of high oil earnings.
The state will also deduct a further 10 percent of total revenues to be deposited into a future generations fund, which will still keep the surplus above 2 billion dinars ($6.8 billion).
Kuwait figured its 2004-05 budget on Kuwait Export Crude (KEC) fetching a modest $15 per barrel but the average price for KEC for the year came to $35.10 per barrel, al-Shall said.
Kuwait pumped an average of 2.34 million barrels per day during the year. The year’s oil earnings could also be adjusted upward since they were calculated on crude earnings, and not refined product sales, which bring in more.
Kuwait’s Cabinet in December 2004 approved a 6.95 billion-dinar ($23.8 billion) budget for fiscal year 2005-06, that began yesterday, with total projected earnings of 4.6 billion dinars ($15.75 billion).