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KUWAIT CITY: Financial assets of OPEC member Kuwait rose to a record
70.21 billion dinars ($264.4 billion) as of March 31, Kuwaiti
newspapers reported Friday, quoting official figures.
The assets are up 14.3 percent over last
year’s 61.4 billion dinars, which were $231.3 billion at the
current exchange rate but were only $213 billion before Kuwait
depegged its currency from the dollar in May 2007.
Since then, the Kuwaiti currency has gained
about 8.2 percent against the waning US dollar.
The figures were released by the government
during a secret parliament session on Thursday, Al-Qabas daily said.
The assets are invested mostly overseas in two
funds managed by Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA), the state’s
arm managing surplus wealth.
One, the Kuwait Fund for Future Generations (KFFG),
saw its assets peak at 57.86 billion dinars ($218 billion), rising
by more than four times from $53 billion six years ago.
The Public Reserve Fund rose to 12.35 billion
dinars ($46.5 billion) from 11.1 billion dinars last year.
KIA manages the assets mostly in Europe, the
United States and southeast Asia, in real estate, stocks and other
long-term investments.
According to law, 10 percent of total revenues
is deducted in favor of KFFG.
The emirate posted a record 18.93 billion dinars
($71.3 billion) total revenues in the 2007/2008 fiscal year which
ended March 31.
Kuwait has boasted a total budget surplus of
over $100 billion in the past nine fiscal years, due to a sharp
increase in oil income, which accounts for about 95 percent of the
emirate’s total revenues.
The emirate, which says it holds around 10
percent of global crude reserves, produces 2.58 million barrels a
day. It has a native population of just over one million people,
besides 2.35 million foreign residents.
-- AFP
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