Kuwait's half-year income surpasses full-year target

[Naveed Yaseen]

KUWAIT CITY: Kuwait’s income in the first half of the fiscal year hit $28.7 billion, surpassing the budgeted full-year target thanks to a better-than-expected oil price, the finance ministry said on Monday.

Earnings in the six months to September 30 are 12 per cent above projected income for the 2009/2010 fiscal year of $28.1 billion, according to figures posted on the ministry’s website. Actual spending in the period came in at $11.2 billion, or just 26.6 per cent of projected expenditure of $42.1 billion for the whole year, the ministry said. That leaves a provisional healthy surplus of $17.5 billion against a projected deficit of $14 billion. Kuwait has projected shortfalls in the past 10 fiscal years but eventually ended with a massive surplus in all of them.

Kuwait’s fiscal year runs from April 1 to March 31. Oil revenues in the first six months hit $27.1 billion, 12 per cent above budget projections of $24.1 billion due to a sharp rise in crude prices in the past few months. Oil income accounted for 94.3 per cent of total revenues, the ministry said. Kuwait has calculated oil revenues at a conservative price of 35 dollars a barrel, down from 50 dollars a barrel in the previous year. Oil, however, has gradually risen from lows of around 30 dollars per barrel at the end of last year and into this year. It was holding above 78 dollars a barrel in trade on Monday.

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