Kuwait needs to increase government spending and support the private sector to overcome imbalances in its economy, the central bank governor said in an interview aired on Tuesday. The OPEC member's "unilateral" dependence on oil and the government's control of all sectors are causing the main imbalances in the economy, Sheikh Salem Abdul-Aziz al-Sabah told CNBC Arabia television.
"There are three structural imbalances in the Kuwaiti economy ... (including) the government's dominance of economic activity ... the private sector investor needs to be given a chance and that will reflect positively on the state's budget," he said.
Oil revenues in Kuwait, the world's fourth-largest oil exporter, account for more than 90 percent of state income.
A fall in oil prices is one of the risks facing the country's economy in 2012, Kuwait's finance ministry has said in a report on its website. (www.mof.gov.kw)
Last month, Kuwait's parliament approved a 19.4 billion dinar ($71 billion) state budget for the 2011/12 fiscal year, the biggest since at least 2003.
Sheikh Salem was quoted by state news agency KUNA on Sunday saying that the country's economy has imbalances which needed to be corrected, but did not give more details.
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