Kuwait tops among GCC peers on govt response to Covid-19
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KUWAIT CITY, May 18: In a report issued in cooperation with the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development (KFAED), the Oxford Business Group discussed how Kuwait responded to the conditions imposed by the Coronavirus pandemic, noting that the country had taken large-scale measures to contain the spread of the epidemic, and that it faced the pandemic with a prosperous and diversified economy, not to mention the existence of a well-resourced healthcare system with low risk factors in the population, reports Al-Anba daily.
At the beginning of the pandemic, Kuwait ranked third in the Arab world, after Qatar and the UAE, in terms of per capita GDP, which amounted to about $30,000 per person. The report said that Kuwait scored the highest average score among the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, as it reached 70.51 points, compared to the 66.67 points in Qatar, on the index of stringency of procedures that measure the response of governments to the Corona virus between March 2020 and March 2021, and 64.53 points in Oman, 60.97 in Bahrain, 60.3 points in Saudi Arabia, and 53.1 points in the UAE, and therefore the measures taken by the Kuwaiti government are considered the most severe during the Corona crisis.
The state budget deficit as a percentage of GDP, according to estimates by Oxford Business Group, reached KUWAIT CITY, May 18: In a report issued in cooperation with the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development (KFAED), the Oxford Business Group discussed how Kuwait responded to the conditions imposed by the Coronavirus pandemic, noting that the country had taken large-scale measures to contain the spread of the epidemic, and that it faced the pandemic with a prosperous and diversified economy, not to mention the existence of a well-resourced healthcare system with low risk factors in the population, reports Al-Anba daily. At the beginning of the pandemic, Kuwait ranked third in the Arab world, after Qatar and the UAE, in terms of per capita GDP, which amounted to about $30,000 per person.
The report said that Kuwait scored the highest average score among the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, as it reached 70.51 points, compared to the 66.67 points in Qatar, on the index of stringency of procedures that measure the response of governments to the Corona virus between March 2020 and March 2021, and 64.53 points in Oman, 60.97 in Bahrain, 60.3 points in Saudi Arabia, and 53.1 points in the UAE, and therefore the measures taken by the Kuwaiti government are considered the most severe during the Corona crisis. The state budget deficit as a percentage of GDP, according to estimates by Oxford Business Group, reached The report spoke about Kuwait’s rapid response to the virus, saying that, about a month after the first confirmed case of Coronavirus in the country, the Council of Ministers began implementing a number of monetary and financial policies to support affected industries, sectors and families, as well as to achieve stability in the macroeconomic environment. The General Reserve Fund has strengthened the country’s ability to manage the fiscal deficit during this unprecedented crisis by mitigating the effects of low oil prices and increasing targeted spending to address the health and economic crisis.
According to the report, the rise in oil prices in the first quarter is supposed to partially address deficit concerns in the year 2021. On the other hand, the report considered the initiative to use digitization necessitated by the pandemic as one of the catalysts for creating new opportunities for the economies of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries, indicating that nine out of 14 countries in this region — including Kuwait — were able to make significant progress in digital competitiveness in 2020, and the importance of the pandemic is certain as a catalyst for digital transformation across the region. The results of a survey that included the CEOs of Kuwaiti companies conducted by Oxford Business Group in 2020 showed that these changes, according to those who participated in the survey, affect the fl exibility of employees and attract talent, as well as companies’ investments in digitization to boost revenues. Regarding the role of the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development, the report said that in addition to supporting developing economies abroad, it is assumed that it will play a major role inside Kuwait to help upgrade skills among the workforce, especially in the engineering fields, and to ensure the provision of effective government housing
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