Foreign cash reserve totals KD 11b, four times more than int’l average

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Kuwait can cover needs of the country for 13 months

KUWAIT CITY, April 23: According to official data released recently, the public reserve of foreign cash in Kuwait reached KD 11 billion, which is four times more than the international average that covers only three months while the cash reserve of Kuwait is enough to cover the needs of the country for 13 months, reports Al- Anba daily.

The public reserve of foreign currencies includes cash deposits, current bank accounts, securities, treasury bills and deposits in foreign currencies divided as follows:

■ KD 10 billion (about $33 billion) of reserve of foreign currencies and securities in Central Bank of Kuwait in March 31, 2018. This means the reserve exceeded the amount recorded four years ago on May 2014 when the oil prices were more than $100 per barrel.

■ KD 1.1 billion (about $3.3 billion) which is the market value of Kuwaiti gold reserve (79 tons stable since 2000) representing 10.2 percent of the total reserve of Kuwait from foreign currencies.

Thus, the total reserve of foreign currencies in the Central Bank of Kuwait is about $37 billion, which is enough to cover the needs of Kuwait for imported commodities for 13 months.

The average monthly demands of Kuwait for imported commodities is KD 2.8 billion as per the commercial scale data issued by Central Statistical Bureau in 2017.

It is worth mentioning that the public reserve of foreign currencies of Saudi Arabia is enough to cover the imported commodities for four years as per a report based on the data issued by the Arabian-Saudi currency institution and the information broadcasted by Al-Arabia TV.

International economic expert and Head of the Research Unit at Senior Center located in the USA Josef Ra’ad told Al-Anba that the withdrawal of the public reserve that had accumulated over the last decade by the Gulf countries has become a must in order to deal with the deficits in their public budgets. He said the ongoing trend among the Gulf countries to withdraw from the public reserves will lead to dangerous consequences especially if the oil prices continue to stay low.

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