Kuwait has no plans to boost budget spending in the next fiscal year, nor does it expect budget cuts in the coming months, Finance Minister Mustapha Al-Shamali said Wednesday. Asked whether he expected budget cuts, he said: “No, no budget cutting but for the future we have to realize things we have to do, for instance no raises in budget expenditure ... investment side of the budget”. “It (this year's budget spending) will be the top because we put some expenditure in this budget and it won't be put in again,” he told reporters on the sidelines of Arab finance ministers' meeting in the United Arab Emirates. Kuwait's Emir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah said in August that a misuse of budget surpluses and “irresponsible consumer waste” have deepened structural imbalances and distortions in the economy, which needed correcting, echoing remarks by the central bank governor. Since 2004, Kuwait's budget spending has tripled to a record 19.4 billion dinars ($71 billion) planned for the 2011/12 fiscal year, which started in April, with expenditure on wages rising almost as fast. The government also boosted social spending this year, including cash grants and free food rations for its citizens. The country plans to spend 4 billion dinars this fiscal year out of its four-year development plan, Shamali said, but did not give details on how much has been spent so far. Kuwait's parliament cleared a $110 billion development plan in February 2010, aiming at diversifying away from oil and boosting the private sector, but progress has been slow so far.
