Kuwait posts $28.9bn budget surplus

Kuwait posted a preliminary budget surplus of $28.9 billion (Dh106.06bn) in the first 11 months of the fiscal year despite projecting a deficit, the finance ministry said yesterday.

The ministry said that revenues until the end of February reached $55.5bn, around twice as much as it had projected for the whole 2009-2010 fiscal year which ends on March 31.

Oil revenues contributed 94.7 per cent of total income. Oil income to the end of February reached $52.5bn, or more than twice the $24.1bn projected by the budget for the whole year.

Kuwait had projected a shortfall of $14bn in the current year after calculating oil income at a conservative price of $35 a barrel. The emirate's spending during the 11 month period was $26.6bn, just 63.4 per cent of projected expenditure for the whole year.

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