Kuwait’s Central Administration of Statistics has released its GDP data for the first quarter of 2025, showing modest growth. At current prices, GDP rose by 1.1% to KD 12.573 billion, compared to KD 12.436 billion in the same period of 2024.
At constant prices—considered a more accurate measure of real growth—GDP increased by 1.0%, reaching KD 10.335 billion, up from KD 10.237 billion.
According to the Al-Shall report, this growth at current prices is largely due to a 4.3% rise in the non-oil sector’s value added, which reached KD 7.367 billion, up from KD 7.062 billion a year earlier.
In contrast, the oil sector’s value added declined by 3.1%, impacted by a drop in average oil prices from $82.1 per barrel in Q1 2024 to $78.2 in Q1 2025.
At constant prices, the non-oil sector grew by 2.0%, while the oil sector recorded a slight decline of 0.3%. As a result, the oil sector’s share of GDP fell from 43.2% in Q1 2024 to 41.4% in Q1 2025—excluding contributions from post-extraction activities.
The report also highlighted the GDP contributions of key sectors: public administration, defense, and social security (12.5%), financial services and insurance (9.4%), manufacturing (7.7%), transport and communications (6.6%), education (6.1%), and wholesale/retail trade, hotels, and restaurants (5.3%). Most of these sectors, it noted, are heavily reliant on public spending.
The report stressed that Kuwait’s economy remains fundamentally dependent on oil, either directly or through government-financed sectors.
Given the ongoing volatility in global oil markets, the report warned that the current economic model is unsustainable. It urged immediate reforms to diversify the country’s economic engines and reduce its vulnerability to external shocks.
