Kuwait foreign reserves up almost 6% in August

Kuwait’s foreign reserves increased by 5.9 per cent in August, compared with the same month last year, the Central Bank of Kuwait said in its monthly report on Monday.

According to the bank, the assets rose to 14.182 billion KWD ($45.86bn) in August; the figure was 13.381bn KWD ($43.27bn) in August 2021. On a monthly basis, Kuwait’s foreign reserves fell by 1.7 per cent in August from 14.435bn KWD ($46.68bn) in July.

The reserves included about 12.529bn KWD ($40.51bn) in deposits and currencies, and 1.33bn KWD ($4.3bn) in special drawing rights with the International Monetary Fund, as well as 234.4 million KWD ($758m) in assets with the IMF. The Gulf state’s foreign reserve includes 79 tons of gold worth about 31.7m KWD ($102.5m) by the end of August.

The foreign reserve does not include foreign assets owned by the Kuwait Investment Authority, with a value in excess of $708.4bn, according to the latest data issued by the Sovereign Wealth Fund.

The oil sector represents more than 90 per cent of the Kuwaiti government’s revenues which benefited from the recovery in oil prices. On 24 August, Kuwaiti Minister of Oil Muhammad Al-Faris announced that his country had increased crude oil production to 2.811m barrels per day under the OPEC+ agreement.

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