São Paulo – In Kuwait, average monthly spending per family is 3,723 dinars (US$ 13,045), according to a survey conducted by the Arab country’s Central Statistics Bureau. The information was released by the website of United Arab Emirates newspaper Gulf News.
According to the newspaper, approximately 14% of the spending goes to food, beverages and cigarettes; 6.6% are spent on clothing and shoes; 21.8% go to leisure and entertainment; and 8.8% go into transportation and communications.
Kuwaiti families set aside only 1.9% of their monthly income to education and 1.8% to healthcare, because these services are provided by the government. Restaurants and hotels get 2.6% of families’ monthly budget and 3.8% are spent on cultural activities.
Average monthly spending by non-Kuwaiti families living in the country amounts to 927 dinars (US$ 6,752), and the breakdown percentage is very similar to that of local families, according to Kuwaiti newspaper Al Watan.
Kuwait has a population of 3.1 million, two thirds of which consists of foreigners, mostly from Asia, who work mainly in construction and services. There are also 455,000 Egyptians living in Kuwait.
Concerned with the risks of having such a large expatriate population, the Kuwaiti government announced this year that it plans on cutting down the number of foreigners in the country by 1 million within ten years. To that end, it will have to repatriate 100,000 people per year.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
