Kuwait’s non-oil GDP growth to remain robust in 2023, says IMF

Kuwait’s non-oil GDP growth to remain robust in 2023, says IMF

Kuwait’s non-oil GDP growth will remain robust in 2023, driven by domestic demand and is expected to remain steady over the medium term, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said in a statement on Wednesday.

Non-oil GDP growth rose to an estimated 3.4% in 2021, thanks to domestic and external demand recovery. It strengthened further to 4% in 2022.

Overall, real GDP grew to 8.2 percent in 2022, supported by a pickup in oil production.

However, the IMF expected oil GDP growth to decline in 2023 due to oil production cuts.

On the other hand, headline inflation receded to 3.7% in May 2023 after peaking at 4.7% year-on-year (YoY) in April 2022.

“Subsidies on basic food items such as rice and sugar, and caps on domestic gasoline prices, helped contain inflation, as did tighter monetary policy,” the IMF said.

Helped by higher oil revenue, the current account surplus is estimated to have reached 33.8% of GDP in 2022 and is projected to remain high in 2023.

Official reserve assets stood at $48.2 billion as of the end of 2022, the IMF stated.

(Editing by Seban Scaria [email protected])

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