KUWAIT CITY : Kuwait will issue billions of dollars worth of bonds in international markets to finance a budget deficit resulting from low oil prices, a report said Sunday.
\nFinance Minister Anas al-Saleh said Kuwait will issue US dollar-denominated sovereign bonds of up to $9.6 billion during the 2016\/2017 fiscal year which ends March 31, Al-Qabas newspaper reported.
\nThis comes on top of a $6.6 billion domestic debt programme which is already underway.
\nKuwait, like other energy-rich Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states, has already taken on tens of billions of dollars in foreign debt to finance budget shortfalls.
\nSaudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman and United Arab Emirates have sold bonds or took syndicated loans to plug their deficits.
\nThe minister\u2019s decree did not specify the share of Islamic sukuk bonds in the planned issue.
\nIt will be the country\u2019s first foreign debt in around two decades.
\nKuwait recorded a budget deficitof $15 billion last fiscal year, breaking a 16-year run of surpluses.
\nOil income contributed around 95 percent of public revenues in those years. During the past two years, oil has lost around 60 percent of its value.
\nThe emirate, home to 1.3 million Kuwaitis and 3 million foreigners, is also projecting a budget shortfall of $29 billion this fiscal year.
\nDuring surplus years, Kuwait piled up around $600 billion in its sovereign wealth fund in holdings mostly in the United States, Europe and Asia.
\nLike its Gulf peers, Kuwait has taken some austerity measures that include liberalising prices of diesel and kerosene and hiking petrol prices.
\nA dispute over petrol prices led parliament being dissolved and snap polls set for November 26.
\nParliament a few months ago approved a law to raise heavily subsidised power and water fees but exempted citizens.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
KUWAIT CITY : Kuwait will issue billions of dollars worth of bonds in international markets to finance a budget deficit resulting from low oil prices, a report said Sunday. Finance Minister Anas al-Saleh said Kuwait will issue US dollar-denominated sovereign bonds of up to $9.6 billion during the 2016\/2017 fiscal year which ends March 31, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-business"],"yoast_head":"\n