Kuwait

Retail and wholesale trade accounts for a sizeable percentage of Kuwait’s non-oil GDP – at 9.1% as of February 2018 – and there are solid growth forecasts for the coming year. Kuwait has one of the highest per capita incomes in the world at $68,500 in 2017, according to the World Bank, and there is strong demand for luxury and imported goods among wealthy locals and foreign residents, who now...

The energy sector is the backbone of Kuwait’s economy, accounting for 90% of both exports and government revenue. Major projects led by state-owned...

Hundreds of thousands of construction workers in Kuwait are busy building bridges, roads, homes, the region’s largest refinery, an expanded airport terminal and a new port. These are just some of the major projects being completed as the country works towards the New Kuwait 2035 vision. However, these developments are almost entirely driven by government spending and components of the Kuwait...

The government’s New Kuwait 2035 strategy has signalled ICT development as a key pillar that is expected to attract investment and boost the local economy. In 2016 telecoms accounted for 7.7% of non-oil revenue and 3.92% of total GDP at constant prices, according to the Central Statistical Bureau. Though its contribution to the non-oil sector grew to 8.2% in 2017, its GDP share dipped slightly to...

As Kuwait tries to curb its dependency on hydrocarbons, which accounted for over 90% of state revenues in 2017, other industries are coming into focus. Excluding refined petroleum products and nuclear fuel, manufacturing industries’ contribution to GDP rose by 6.2% in 2017 to $5.6bn, according to the central bank. Meanwhile, refined petroleum products and nuclear fuel’s portion of GDP expanded by...