KUWAIT, 23 August 2005 — Kuwait recorded a hefty budget surplus of 2.647 billion dinars ($9.05 billion) for the fiscal year that ended in March 2005, thanks to high oil prices, according to government statistics published yesterday.
However that surplus likely will be dwarfed by the one expected for the current fiscal year 2005-2006 which ends next March. It is estimated by economists at about 5.29 billion dinars if high oil prices hold.
Local newspapers yesterday carried details of the state’s final accounts for fiscal 2004-2005 — approved by the Cabinet on Sunday - showing revenues at 8.962 billion dinars while expenditures stood at 6.315 billion dinars.
Of the resulting surplus, 1.75 billion dinars went into the state’s general reserves while 897 million dinars - or 10 percent of the revenues - was earmarked for the Future Generations Fund, a rainy day fund.
The vast majority of the government revenue, or 8.17 billion dinars, was from oil sales while just over 396 million dinars came from services revenue and 103 million dinars from various fees.
The tiny OPEC country which controls nearly a tenth of global petroleum reserves has a population of about 2.7 million of whom less than 1 million are Kuwaitis and the rest expatriate workers and their families.
Kuwait has an official OPEC crude oil quota of 2.247 million barrels per day (bpd) but it produces over 2.5 million bpd now as part of efforts by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to cool prices.
On the expenditures side, 1.75 billion dinars went for public employees’ salaries last year, 870 million dinars for purchases of goods and services, 678 million dinars for construction projects and maintenance and 2.97 billion dinars for various other expenditures.
