Kuwait has a sterling reputation in the field of sovereign investments and as a pioneer in creating national wealth funds. In fact, the first sovereign fund in the world was set up by Kuwait in the 1960s.
Despite such extensive experience, the political tensions, especially between the government and legislators in the National Assembly, reflect mindsets that negatively affect economic growth.
For example, last August, Minister of Finance Ali Al Sheatan said, “The government may not be able to pay the salaries of employees in November”, and which led the credit rating agency Moody’s to downgrade Kuwait’s rating in September from Aa2 to A1.
Therefore, officials have to be extremely cautious in what they are trying to say - as the Gulf proverb says, ‘Eating dates is not like counting seeds’. The minister’s statement set off a panic in society and on social media, although it did not reflect the reality of the country’s relatively strong financial conditions. Why?
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