Economy of Kuwait

Economy of Kuwait

Kuwait City
Currency	Kuwaiti dinar (KD)
Fiscal year	1 April-31 March
Trade organisations	WTO and OPEC
Statistics
GDP	$282.06 billion (2014 est)
GDP per capita	$70,700
GDP by sector	agriculture (0.4%), industry (60.6), services (39.%) (2014 est.)
Inflation (CPI)	2.9% (2014 est.)
Unemployment	3.4% (2011 est.)
Main industries	petroleum, petrochemicals, cement, shipbuilding and repair, desalination, food processing, construction materials
Ease-of-doing-business rank	102nd (2017)
External
Exports	$115.46 billion f.o.b. (2013 est.)
Export goods	oil and refined products, fertilizers
Main export partners	South Korea 14.6%  China 12.1%  India 12.1%  Japan 10.4%  United States 7.6%  Pakistan 5.9%  Singapore 4.3% (2015)
Imports	$36.54 billion f.o.b. (2013 est.)
Import goods	food, construction materials, vehicles and parts, clothing
Main import partners	China 13%  United States 9.5%  Saudi Arabia 7.6%  Japan 6.4%  Germany 5%  France 4.3%  India 4.2% (2015)
Gross external debt	$38.82 billion (31 December 2008 est.)
Public finances
Public debt	$14.22 billion (29.6% of GDP) (2004 est.)
Revenues	$113.3 billion (2008 est.)
Expenses	$63.55 billion (2008 est.)
Economic aid	N/A
Credit rating	Standard & Poor's: AA- (Domestic) AA- (Foreign) AA+ (T&C Assessment) Outlook: Stable Moody's: Aa2 Outlook: Stable Fitch: AA Outlook: Stable
Main data source: CIA World Fact Book All values, unless otherwise stated, are in US dollars.

Kuwait is a small, petroleum-based economy. The Kuwaiti dinar is the highest-valued unit of currency in the world. Non-petroleum industries include financial services. According to the World Bank, Kuwait is the fourth richest country in the world per capita. Kuwait is the second richest GCC country per capita (after Qatar).

Kuwait has a leading position in the financial industry in the GCC; the abyss that separates Kuwait from its Gulf neighbors in terms of tourism, transport, and other measures of diversification is absent in the financial sector. The Emir has promoted the idea that Kuwait should focus its energies, in terms of economic development, on the financial industry.

The historical preeminence of Kuwait (among the Gulf monarchies) in finance dates back to the founding of the National Bank of Kuwait in 1952. The bank was the first local publicly traded corporation in the Gulf. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, an alternative stock market, trading in shares of Gulf companies, emerged in Kuwait, the . At its peak, its market capitalization was the third highest in the world, behind only the U.S. and Japan, and ahead of the UK and France.

Kuwait has a large wealth-management industry that stands out in the region. Kuwaiti investment companies administer more assets than those of any other GCC country, save the much larger Saudi Arabia. The Kuwait Financial Centre, in a rough calculation, estimated that Kuwaiti firms accounted for over one-third of the total assets under management in the GCC. The relative strength of Kuwait in the financial industry extends to its stock market. For many years, the total valuation of all companies listed on the Kuwaiti exchange far exceeded the value of those on any other GCC bourse, except Saudi Arabia. In 2011, financial and banking companies made up more than half of the market capitalization of the Kuwaiti bourse; among all the Gulf states, the market capitalization of Kuwaiti financial-sector firms was, in total, behind only that of Saudi Arabia.

In recent years, Kuwaiti investment companies have invested large percentages of their assets abroad, and their foreign assets have become substantially larger than their domestic assets.