#Kuwait has made the least progress among Gulf states to address government wage bill - World Bank | Reuters

Kuwait has made the least progress among Gulf states to address government wage bill - World Bank | Reuters

Kuwait has made the least progress among countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council to reform its wage bill, the World Bank's lead economist for the Gulf said on Monday.

"In Kuwait, they have actually increased hiring in recent years, and after the oil price drop [of 2014], they actually increased hiring from 15,000 a year to 25,000 a year which is almost a whole cohort," said the World Bank's Ismail Radwan at a news conference in Dubai.

"So we have a situation now where one-third of the Kuwaiti civil service has been recruited in the past five years, so that's why we say it's unsustainable," Radwan said.

Hit hard by lower oil prices and the COVID-19 pandemic last year, the OPEC oil producer was facing liquidity risks largely because parliament has not authorised government borrowing due to a standoff. S&P in July cut Kuwait's rating by one notch to A+ from AA-(minus)and kept its outlook on the country negative, citing the country's lack of a funding strategy to finance its deficit.