Kuwait posts $22bn budget surplus

Kuwait has posted a budget surplus of KD6.4 billion ($22.2 billion) for the financial year 2009/10, up from KD 2.7 billion the previous year. This is its 11th consecutive budget surplus, said a report by National bank of Kuwait (NBK).

The country's revenues fell 16 per cent because of lower oil prices and production cuts last year, but they were still 219 per cent of budgeted numbers, said the NBK report citing FY2009/10 closing accounts.

The expenditures too fell 38 per cent and were 93 per cent of the budgeted amount, it added."