Kuwait Economy - 2005

Economy - overview:
Kuwait is a small, rich, relatively open economy with proved crude oil reserves of about 96 billion barrels - 10% of world reserves. Petroleum accounts for nearly half of GDP, 95% of export revenues, and 80% of government income. Kuwait's climate limits agricultural development. Consequently, with the exception of fish, it depends almost wholly on food imports. About 75% of potable water must be distilled or imported. Kuwait continues its discussions with foreign oil companies to develop fields in the northern part of the country.

GDP:
purchasing power parity - $48 billion (2004 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
6.8% (2004 est.)

GDP - per capita:
purchasing power parity - $21,300 (2004 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
agriculture: 0.4%
industry: 60.5%
services: 39.1% (2004 est.)

Labor force:
1.42 million
note: non-Kuwaitis represent about 80% of the labor force (2004 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
agriculture NA, industries NA, services NA

Unemployment rate:
2.2% (2004 est.)

Population below poverty line:
NA

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
lowest 10%: NA
highest 10%: NA

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
2.3% (2004 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
8% of GDP (2004 est.)

Budget:
revenues: $35.82 billion
expenditures: $19.53 billion, including capital expenditures of NA (2004 est.)

Public debt:
29.6% of GDP (2004 est.)

Agriculture - products:
practically no crops; fish

Industries:
petroleum, petrochemicals, cement, shipbuilding and repair, desalination, food processing, construction materials

Industrial production growth rate:
-5% (2002 est.)

Electricity - production:
32.43 billion kWh (2002)

Electricity - consumption:
30.16 billion kWh (2002)

Electricity - exports:
0 kWh (2002)

Electricity - imports:
0 kWh (2002)

Oil - production:
2.319 million bbl/day (2004 est.)

Oil - consumption:
293,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
1.97 million bbl/day (2003)

Oil - imports:
NA

Oil - proved reserves:
96.5 billion bbl (2004 est.)

Natural gas - production:
8.7 billion cu m (2002 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
8.7 billion cu m (2002 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
0 cu m (2002 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
0 cu m (2002 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
1.548 trillion cu m (2004)

Current account balance:
$12.04 billion (2004 est.)

Exports:
$27.42 billion f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Exports - commodities:
oil and refined products, fertilizers

Exports - partners:
Japan 22.6%, US 13.4%, South Korea 13.4%, Singapore 12.4%, Taiwan 8.4%, Netherlands 4.1% (2004)

Imports:
$11.12 billion f.o.b. (2004 est.)

Imports - commodities:
food, construction materials, vehicles and parts, clothing

Imports - partners:
US 13.1%, Germany 12.7%, Japan 8.2%, China 5.9%, Italy 5.4%, UK 5.4%, Saudi Arabia 4.7%, France 4.6% (2004)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
$7.333 billion (2004 est.)

Debt - external:
$15.02 billion (2004 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
NA (2001)

Currency (code):
Kuwaiti dinar (KD)

Exchange rates:
Kuwaiti dinars per US dollar - 0.2947 (2004), 0.298 (2003), 0.3039 (2002), 0.3067 (2001), 0.3068 (2000)