KUWAIT: Kuwait's parliament on Wednesday approved a law to make transfers of state revenue to one of its sovereign wealth funds conditional on budget surpluses, a move which will provide more than $12 billion in much needed liquidity to the treasury.
Parliament, however, returned a public debt law that would allow the government to borrow 20 billion dinars ($65.4 billion) over 30 years to a parliamentary committee for two weeks of further study, it said on its website.
Government and parliament have long been at odds over debt reform, which would allow Kuwait to tap international markets. But the issue has become more urgent in recent months as the oil-exporting nation has been hit by low crude prices and the Covid-19 pandemic.
Kuwait automatically transfers 10% of the state's revenue every year to the Future Generations Fund, one of its sovereign funds, but the law passed by the national assembly on Wednesday will now only allow transfers to the fund when the year's budget is in surplus.
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