Kuwait spends 143.5 million dinars on food and construction subsidies in H1
- Basic food supplies accounted for the largest share at 77.43 million dinars, or 53.96 percent of the total, while subsidies for construction materials amounted to 56.75 million dinars, or 39.55 percent.
- Milk and infant formula subsidies stood at 9.23 million dinars, representing 6.43 percent.
Kuwait’s total subsidy bill for, and construction materials reached 143.5 million dinars during the first half of 2026, according to official figures from the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
Basic food supplies accounted for the largest share at 77.43 million dinars, or 53.96 percent of the total, while subsidies for construction materials amounted to 56.75 million dinars, or 39.55 percent.
Milk and infant formula subsidies stood at 9.23 million dinars, representing 6.43 percent.
January recorded the highest monthly subsidy bill at 31.3 million dinars, followed by February with 27.4 million dinars, June with 24.3 million dinars, April with 21.3 million dinars, March with 19.8 million dinars and May with 19.2 million dinars.
Subsidies for basic commodities peaked at 15.6 million dinars in both January and June. They stood at 14.7 million dinars in February, 9.7 million dinars in March, 11.3 million dinars in April and 10.3 million dinars in May.
For milk and infant formula, subsidies reached their highest level in June at 1.9 million dinars, compared with 1.3 million dinars in January, 1.5 million dinars each in February and March, and 1.4 million dinars in April and May.
Construction material subsidies totaled 14.3 million dinars in January, falling to 11 million dinars in February, around 8.5 million dinars in both March and April, 7.4 million dinars in May and 6.7 million dinars in June.
The number of cumulative ration cards reached approximately 279,753 by the end of June, while around 2.396 million people were benefiting from the ration system by the end of May.
The subsidized food list includes 89 items, covering basic products such as rice, lentils, sugar, vegetable oil, milk powder, infant formula, chicken and tomato paste.
An additional 27 discounted products bring the total number of subsidized and discounted items available to Kuwaiti citizens through ration cards to about 116.
