The Report: Kuwait 2016 PDF Download

Author: Oxford Business Group
Publisher: Oxford Business Group
ISBN: 1910068659
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 216

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Book Description
Home to the largest per capita reserves and fourth-largest total reserves of crude oil within OPEC, Kuwait’s public finances have suffered in 2016 following the rapid decline in oil prices, which drove oil revenues down from $108.6bn in 2013 to $51.8bn in 2015. Despite this Kuwait has resisted significant budgetary cutbacks: spending levels in 2016 were cut by just 1.6%, and the considerable financial buffers built up from budget surpluses in the years leading up to 2014 are expected to cushion the budget deficit. The country continues to push ahead with key public investments, with Parliament allocating $155bn to the Kuwait Development Plan 2015-20 to fund infrastructure, utilities and housing developments. The plan focuses on further integrating the private sector into areas of the economy traditionally under state control and aims to raise the non-oil sector’s GDP contribution to 64% in 2015-20, up from an average of 45.1% in 2010-13. Elsewhere promising moves are being made to cut state subsidies, with the government opting to liberalise diesel and kerosene prices and reduce subsidies on aviation fuel in January 2015, generating savings equal to 0.3% of GDP.

Author: International Monetary Fund. Middle East and Central Asia Dept.
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
ISBN: 1475566549
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 66

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Book Description
This 2016 Article IV Consultation highlights that the economic activity in the non-oil sector in Kuwait has continued to expand, albeit at a slower pace, reflecting the impact of lower oil prices. Nonhydrocarbon growth slowed from 5 percent to an estimated 3.5 percent in 2015, as higher uncertainty weighed on consumption. Labor market reforms and efforts to promote the role of the private sector are important to foster diversification and boost job creation for nationals. Better aligning labor market incentives is necessary to encourage nationals to take on private sector jobs and private firms to create opportunities for them.

Author: U. S. U. S. State Department
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781976416767
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 36

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Principal human rights problems included limitations on citizens' ability to choose their government; restrictions on freedom of speech and assembly, especially among foreign workers and a stateless population referred to as "bidoon"; and lack of enforcement of laws protecting labor rights within the foreign worker population, especially in the domestic and unskilled service sectors, resulting in higher risk of human trafficking.

Author: Congressional Service
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781544651026
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 28

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Kuwait remains pivotal to U.S. efforts to secure the Persian Gulf region because of its consistent cooperation with U.S. strategy and operations in the region and its proximity to both Iran and Iraq. Kuwait and the United States have a formal Defense Cooperation Agreement (DCA) under which the United States maintains forces and pre-positioned military equipment in Kuwait. These forces contribute to U.S. efforts to project power and otherwise operate in the region, including to combat the Islamic State. Kuwait receives no U.S. foreign assistance, and has offset some of the costs of U.S. operations in the region since Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait. On regional issues, Kuwait usually, but not always, acts in concert with its allies in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC: Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, and Oman). In March 2011, Kuwait supported the GCC military intervention to help Bahrain's government suppress an uprising by the majority Shiite population, but it sent only largely symbolic naval ships and not ground forces. Kuwait's leadership, along with that of Saudi Arabia and UAE, sees Muslim Brotherhood-related organizations as a potential domestic threat, and all three countries supported the Egyptian military's July 2013 removal of elected president and senior Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohammad Morsi. Kuwait is participating militarily in the Saudi-led coalition that is trying to defeat the Shiite "Houthi" rebel movement in Yemen, but has also focused on trying to forge a diplomatic solution to that conflict. Kuwait has supported U.S. efforts to contain Iran and has periodically arrested Kuwaiti Shiites that the government says are spying for Iran, but it also engages Iran at high levels, including on the Yemen conflict. As part of this engagement, in mid-February 2017, Iran's President Hassan Rouhani visited Kuwait and the other GCC state that consistently engages Iran, the Sultanate of Oman. Kuwait has generally refrained from offering its own proposals to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian dispute. Kuwait supports U.S.-led efforts to combat the Islamic State organization by hosting the operational command center for U.S.-led Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR) and allowing U.S. and partner forces to use its military facilities, but it is not participating militarily in OIR. Some U.S.-Kuwait differences linger over Kuwait's apparent failure to prevent wealthy Kuwaitis from raising funds for extreme Islamist rebels in Syria or elsewhere. Kuwait's political system and political culture has been widely viewed as a regional model. It has successfully incorporated secular and Islamist political factions, both Shiite and Sunni, for many decades. However, Kuwait experienced political turmoil during 2006-2013, initially manifesting as parliamentary opposition to Sabah family political dominance but later broadening to visible public unrest in 2012-2013 over the ruling family's power and privileges. Parliamentary elections in July 2013 produced a National Assembly amenable to working with the ruling family, but the elections held on November 26, 2016, saw a return to political strength of Islamist and liberal opponents of the Sabah family who held sway in earlier Assemblies. The government also has increasingly imprisoned and revoked the citizenship of social media critics for "insulting the Amir," tarnishing Kuwait's reputation for political tolerance. On the other hand, Kuwait has made increased efforts to curb trafficking in persons, causing the State Department to upgrade Kuwait's rating in the 2016 report on that issue. Years of political paralysis also have contributed to economic stagnation relative to Kuwait's more economically vibrant Gulf neighbors such as Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). As are the other GCC states, Kuwait is also struggling with the consequences of the sharp fall in oil prices since mid-2014.

Author: World Bank Group
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Electronic book
Languages : en
Pages :

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Author: Francesca Spencer
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 1326786202
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description
Based on real-life stories from an international school in Kuwait, which chart the survival of teachers from the thrown-in-at-the-deep-end start to the I-can't-believe-we-made-it finish. Outlandish comedy abounds as the teachers laugh and lose it, through a mine field of barriers to logic, and challenges to plain common sense.The book illuminates the startling excesses of the oil-money rich as they balance a past of poverty with an extreme pot of gold from the end of the rainbow. It shows Kuwait as a microcosm reflecting the more global issues surrounding waste, ecology, using more than we need, and consumerism gone mad. The stories reveal the pros and cons of teaching on the international circuit and how the teachers adapt to an alien land of dust, sexual and racial inequality and an oppressive political regime, both inside and outside school. Resilience, fortitude and a hefty dose of humour gets the teachers through to the end with a cheer and a wave.

Author: International Monetary Fund. Middle East and Central Asia Dept.
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
ISBN: 1513508660
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 61

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Book Description
This 2015 Article IV Consultation highlights that decline in oil prices has adversely affected Kuwait’s fiscal and current account balances and slowed growth in 2014–15. Real non-oil GDP growth is projected to slow in 2015 and 2016, and pick up to 4 percent in the medium term, supported by government investment in infrastructure and private investment. The fiscal and external positions are projected to deteriorate further in 2015 and 2016, and improve somewhat over the medium term as oil prices and production recover partially.

Author: Kenneth Katzman
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781087103068
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 30

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Book Description
Kuwait has been pivotal to the decades-long U.S. effort to secure the Persian Gulf region because of its consistent cooperation with U.S. military operations in the region and its key location in the northern Gulf. Kuwait and the United States have a formal Defense Cooperation Agreement (DCA), under which the United States maintains over 13,000 military personnel in country and prepositions military equipment to project power in the region. Only Germany, Japan, and South Korea host more U.S. troops than does Kuwait, which has hosted the operational command center for U.S.-led Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR) that has combatted the Islamic State since 2014. Kuwait is a partner not only of the United States but also of the other hereditary monarchies of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC: Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, and Oman). Kuwait is participating militarily in the Saudi-led coalition that is trying to defeat the Shia "Houthi" rebel movement in Yemen, but Kuwait tends to favor mediation of regional issues over the use of military force. Kuwait has sought to resolve the intra-GCC rift that erupted in June 2017 when Saudi Arabia and the UAE moved to isolate Qatar. Kuwait has refrained from intervening in Syria's civil war, instead hosting donor conferences for victims of the Syrian civil conflict, Iraq's recovery from the Islamic State challenge, and the effects of regional conflict on Jordan's economy. Kuwait has not followed some of the other GCC states in building quiet ties to the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel. Kuwait generally supports U.S. efforts to counter Iran and has periodically arrested Kuwaiti Shias that the government says are spying for Iran, but it also engages Iran at high levels. U.S. government reports have praised steps by Kuwait to counter the financing of terrorism, but reports persist that wealthy Kuwaitis are still able to donate to extreme Islamist factions in the region. Kuwait has consistently engaged the post-Saddam governments in Baghdad in part to prevent any repeat of the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Experts have long assessed Kuwait's political system as a potential regional model for its successful incorporation of secular and Islamist political factions, both Shia and Sunni. However, since the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings, Kuwait has followed other GCC states in incarcerating and revoking the citizenship of social media and other critics. Kuwait's political stability has not been in question but long-standing parliamentary opposition to the ruling Sabah family's political dominance has in recent years included visible public pressure for political and economic reform. Parliamentary elections in July 2013 produced a National Assembly amenable to working with the ruling family, but the subsequent elections held in November 2016 returned to the body Islamist and liberal opponents of the Sabah family who held sway in earlier assemblies. Kuwait has increased its efforts to curb trafficking in persons over the past few years. Years of political paralysis contributed to economic stagnation relative to Kuwait's more economically vibrant Gulf neighbors such as Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Like the other GCC states, Kuwait has struggled with reduced income from oil exports during 20142018. Kuwait receives negligible amounts of U.S. foreign assistance, and has offset some of the costs of U.S. operations in the region since Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

Author: Weltbankgruppe
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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This economy profile presents the Doing Business indicators for Kuwait. To allow useful comparison, it also provides data for other selected economies (comparator economies) for each indicator. Doing Business 2017 is the 14th in a series of annual reports investigating the regulations that enhance business activity and those that constrain it. Economies are ranked on their ease of doing business; for 2016 Kuwait ranks 98. Doing Business sheds light on how easy or difficult it is for a local entrepreneur to open and run a small to medium-size business when complying with relevant regulations. It measures and tracks changes in regulations affecting 11 areas in the life cycle of a business: starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting minority investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts, resolving insolvency, and labor market regulation. Doing Business 2017 presents the data for the labor market regulation indicators in an annex. The report does not present rankings of economies on labor market regulation indicators or include the topic in the aggregate distance to frontier score or ranking on the ease of doing business. The indicators are used to analyze economic outcomes and identify what reforms have worked, where, and why. The data in this report are current as of June 1, 2016 (except for the paying taxes indicators, which cover the period January-December 2015).

Author: International Monetary Fund. Research Dept.
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
ISBN: 1498398588
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 230

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Book Description
Major macroeconomic realignments are affecting prospects differentially across the world’s countries and regions. The April 2016 WEO examines the causes and implications of these realignments—including the slowdown and rebalancing in China, a further decline in commodity prices, a related slowdown in investment and trade, and declining capital flows to emerging market and developing economies—which are generating substantial uncertainty and affecting the outlook for the global economy. Additionally, analytical chapters examine the slowdown in capital flows to emerging market economies since their 2010 peak—its main characteristics, how it compares with past slowdowns, the factors that are driving it, and whether exchange rate flexibility has changed the dynamics of the capital inflow cycle—and assess whether product and labor market reforms can improve the economic outlook in advanced economies, looking at the recent evolution and scope for further reform, the channels through which reforms affect economic activity under strong versus weak economic conditions, reforms’ short- to medium-term macroeconomic effects, and sequencing of reforms and coordination with other policies to maximize their potential quantitative economic benefits. A special feature analyzes in depth the energy transition in an era of low fossil fuel prices.