Kuwait shelves vote to buy off citizens' loans

The Kuwaiti parliament postponed a scheduled vote on a controversial multi-billion-dollar scheme to buy up citizens' private debt after heated exchanges yesterday.

Speaker Jassem Al Khorafi adjourned the session until today as he failed to bring order to the floor when supporters and opponents of the plan traded accusations.

The bill, which was approved at first reading two weeks ago, would require the government of the Gulf state to buy up $21.6 billion (Dh79.2bn) of personal and consumer loans taken out by citizens.

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