FORECASTED KUWAITI GROWTH IS 8.7%, TOPS GULF

  • 13/10/2022

Kuwait City: The International Monetary Fund has increased its forecast for Kuwait's economic expansion in 2022 from earlier projections, predicting that Kuwait will experience the largest growth in the Gulf this year. In its report on growth prospects, the IMF predicted that Kuwait's real GDP would increase by 8.7% this year, up from its previous forecast of 8.2% in April. It also predicted that Kuwait's real GDP would grow by 2.6 percent in 2023, which reflects the anticipated slowdown in growth but is still higher than the growth of 1.3 percent seen in output in 2021. In relation to the Kuwaiti consumer price index, the IMF revised downward its growth projection for this year from 4.8 percent to 4.3 percent, indicating a slowdown in the rate in 2023 to 2.4 percent.


In its report, the Fund also lowered its forecast for Kuwait's current account balance surplus, which it had previously predicted would total 31.3 percent of GDP in 2022—the highest level since 2014—to a record 29.1 percent of GDP. It also lowered its forecast for the current account balance surplus for the following year, which it had previously predicted would total 27.2 percent of GDP. 

The Fund anticipated that Saudi Arabia would record the second-largest growth in the Gulf after Kuwait, with its GDP increasing by 7.6 percent (the same previous estimate). Oman was expected to follow with 4.4 percent, which would indicate a growth that is less than the Fund's April estimates of 5.6 percent. The UAE came in fourth in the Gulf with a weighted growth of 5.1 percent, which was higher than the April estimates of 4.2 percent. Next came Qatar and Bahrain, both of which experienced 3.4 percent growt.h 

The IMF increased its prediction for the growth of the Middle Eastern and Central Asian economies this year from 4.6 percent to 5 percent, and it is likely that growth will slow to 3.6 percent the following year. On the other hand, the Fund emphasised that the global economy is experiencing a widespread slowdown that is exceeding expectations and that inflation rates are higher than they were in several previous decades. The Fund also noted that the invasion of Russia and Ukraine, the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, and the cost of living crisis are all major hindrances to the global economy's prospects.

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