São Paulo – The International Monetary Fund (IMF) made public this Tuesday (17) its assessment of Kuwait’s economy. According to the analysis, the country “is well positioned to mitigate the impact of lower oil prices on the economy,” although there’s been a deterioration of the fiscal scenario and external accounts, precisely because of the decline in the prices of the commodity, the main source of revenues for the Gulf nation.
According to the Fund, Kuwait has financial resources available and low indebtedness, which creates room for a gradual fiscal adjustment and, at the same time, an increase in public investments to encourage growth. Since an improvement in oil prices is expected, the fiscal and external scenarios tend to improve also.
The economy’s non-oil sectors continue to expand, albeit in a lower level compared to recent years. These activities increased 5% in 2014 and 3.5% in 2015, and now are expanding at a pace of 3.25% per year, but a speeding up to a 4% growth in the medium-term is expected.
*Translated by Sérgio Kakitani