Kuwait reserves insufficient for April salaries, says source

Kuwait’s General Reserve Fund, managed by the state-run Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA), has insufficient deposits to pay the salaries of public employees next month, a ministerial source told the media.

This comes as the Kuwaiti government has proposed new amendments to the country’s public debt law, including capping borrowing to maximum 60 per cent of gross domestic product, the head of a parliamentary finance committee told Reuters.

The government presented the proposed amendments to the parliamentary committee yesterday, Ahmed Al-Hamad said. Another proposed change regards the duration of debt: the government would like no maturity limit, he said, while the existing debt law has a maximum limit of 30 years.

Kuwait is facing a liquidity squeeze because of a standoff between government and parliament over the public debt law.

The coronavirus pandemic has led to country-wide closures in Kuwait and caused mass losses to all sectors

So far, a total of 192,031 people have contracted COVID-19 in Kuwait, 1,085 of whom have died and 180,155 others have recovered, according to the US’ Worldometers.

Kuwait records highest annual job losses in 30 years