Kuwait trade surplus soars to $38.8b in 2010

Thursday, 28 July 2011 00:52 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Kuwait’s current account surplus rebounded in 2010 as the effects of the financial crisis waned and hit KD10.6 billion ($38.84 billion), an increase of KD3.1 billion from 2009, a report said.

Revenue from oil exports – the major contributor to the current account surplus – increased by a third, reaching KD17.7 billion thanks to higher oil prices and to strong global demand.

Non-oil exports showed a smaller increase and therefore made up a smaller share of all goods exported in 2010.

Non-oil exports made up 7.9 per cent of all exported goods in 2010, down 1.9 percentage points from 2009. This highlights the fact that further work needs to be done in order to diversify exports away from oil, said the NBK report.

Imports saw an increase of 9.9 per cent in the year after shrinking 19.3 per cent in 2009. Overall, Kuwait continued to be a net exporter of goods with exports 3.5 times the size of imports. However, imports were 3.6 times the size of non-oil exports.

The services balance stood at a deficit of KD1.7 billion, with the biggest chunk of this deficit going to travel services.

The deficit on current transfers – which is mostly worker remittances – saw a rise of 0.4 per cent year-on-year to KD3.7 billion. However, transfers data often undergo revision at later stages and therefore it is possible that transfers will eventually be shown to have risen by more as the number of expatriates in the workforce showed some increase in 2010.

The country’s investment income -- net earnings from international financial assets -- increased in 2010 by 11.5 per cent (y/y), to reach KD2.3 billion, after they had taken a hit the previous two years.