Kuwait has no money to pay salaries? World in shock

KUWAIT: The oil-rich Gulf state of Kuwait is running out of money and its finance minister has warned that the government will not have the money to pay government employees in November.

According to the Kuwait Times, Finance Minister Barack Al-Shaitan has clarified that the country’s foreign exchange reserves are currently only two billion dinars which is $6.54 billion, while the government pays the salaries of government employees every month. One billion 700 million riyals are needed to meet other expenses.

The finance minister has approached the Kuwaiti parliament to control the fiscal deficit and is seeking the approval of a law to obtain a loan. Under which the government will be able to get a loan of 20 billion dinars in the next ten years. So that they can overcome the budget deficit created by the continuous fall in oil prices in the world market and also to deal with the negative effects of the coronavirus on the economy.

According to the newspaper, Thamer Al-Suwait, a member of the Kuwaiti parliament, said: “The finance minister has shocked us by saying that the government will not be able to meet the demands in November. It is worth 205 billion dinars.

Another member of parliament, Hamdan al-Azimi, has objected to the finance minister raising his hand. “It’s a shame that we have the fourth largest sovereign fund in the world and the government wants to borrow money to pay the debtors,” he said.

Just two days before the Finance Minister advocated for a loan, it was reported that Kuwait’s budget deficit had widened to 14 billion dinars in the 2020/21 fiscal year.

Kuwaiti authorities are implementing various plans to control the budget deficit. They are taking legislative and administrative steps to reduce the number of migrant workers in the country.

Kuwait announced on Tuesday that it would not issue residence permits to immigrants over the age of 60 who do not have a university degree. He said the visas and residency of such people in the country would not be extended beyond August 31.