gulfnews : Oil dependence worries Kuwait

Kuwait's government spending boost made the economy more vulnerable to a fall in oil prices due to the Opec member's significant dependence on crude revenue, a senior central bank official was quoted as saying by a daily newspaper yesterday.

'Kuwait's economy is the most vulnerable... among GCC countries,' Mohammad Al Kadi, a member of the central bank's board, told Arabic daily Al Qabas in an interview.

'They [other GCC states] are able to deal with any emergency crisis because spending in these countries on salaries, wages and subsidies did not reach the level of Kuwait's budget,' he said.

* username: rupertbu