In a report it recently issued dealing with economic developments in the Arab countries during 2021, the Arab Monetary Fund stated that despite the positive repercussions of developments in the oil markets on the Gulf economies, it indicates at the same time the need for Kuwait to strengthen and intensify the efforts made by the governments of the region to increase the degree of diversification in the economy building it made gains as a result of its strategies aimed at expanding the scope of non-oil economic activities, and reducing the degree of dependence on oil resources to supplement government budgets.
In terms of the effects of growth and inflation in Kuwait 2021, the report stated that the growth rate rose to 1.3 percent after recording a contraction in output in 2020 as a result of the recovery in global oil prices, reports a local Arabic daily.
However, the delay in important projects and investments in a number of sectors such as construction and building contributed to the limit of growth. During 2021, adding that inflation in 2021 rose to 3.4 percent as a result of higher food prices and increased domestic demand.
The report showed that Kuwait registered the second lowest rate of government spending in the Arab world during 2021, explaining that “government spending declined in 14 Arab countries, and Libya recorded the highest decline rate of 37.7 percent, followed by Kuwait with 23.1 percent, then Lebanon with 15.3 percent.
On the other hand, the value of investment at constant prices increased in 11 Arab countries, especially Kuwait, by 89.3 percent, which is a corrective trend after its contraction during 2020.
The report indicated that natural gas reserves in the Arab countries in 2021 amounted to about 55.2 trillion cubic meters, representing approximately 26.9 percent of global reserves, indicating that the Arab countries’ natural gas production during 2021 amounted to 661.5 billion cubic meters per year, which constituted 16 percent of marketed natural gas. Globally, 76.7 percent of Arab natural gas is in the Gulf states, distributed among 207 billion cubic meters in Qatar, followed in order by Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Egypt, the Emirates, Oman, Libya, Bahrain, Kuwait and Iraq.
The report mentioned that the Arab countries’ production of sulfur amounted to about 15.8 million tons, as sulfur production included 11 Arab countries, the most prolific of which were Saudi Arabia, then the UAE, Qatar and Kuwait.
On a related note, Saudi Arabia ranked first in the Arab world with 32.3 percent of the total refining capacity in 2021, followed by the UAE with 13.1 percent, then Iraq with 8.5 percent, and Kuwait with 8.3 percent.
Saudi Arabia also ranked first with a share of 65.7 percent of the total ethylene production capacity in the Arab countries during 2021, followed by the UAE with 12.6 percent, then Qatar with 10.6 percent, and Kuwait with 6.1 percent.
The report noted that 92.7 percent of the proven reserves of Arab crude oil are concentrated in 5 countries: Saudi Arabia, which accounted for 36.4 percent, followed by Iraq with 20.6 percent, the UAE with 14.9 percent, and Kuwait with 14.1 percent. And Libya by 6.7 percent, pointing out that the reserves of Arab countries accounted for 55.2 percent of global oil reserves, and that the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Kuwait accounted for more than 78 percent of the total oil exports of Arab countries during 2021.
The report indicated that the gross enrollment rate in higher education in the Arab world, according to the latest available data, until 2020, amounted to about 41.1 percent, which is more than double that of the rest of the developing countries and the countries of the world as a whole. The high income.
The report mentioned that gross enrollment rates in higher education vary significantly across the Arab world, pointing out that Saudi Arabia topped the list with 70.6 percent, followed by Bahrain with 61.8 percent, then Kuwait with 61.1 percent.
With regard to health, the report confirmed that the public sector assumes the main responsibility for financing the health sector in 13 Arab countries, in which the proportion of general government spending to total government and private spending on health ranged between 49 percent in Iraq and Lebanon, and 87 percent in Kuwait, noting that The data available for individual Arab countries indicate that Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Qatar and Kuwait provided adequate sanitation services for all residents.
The report stated that customs duties on foreign trade constituted an important source of tax revenues for Kuwait during 2021, amounting to 62.9 percent, indicating that a number of Arab countries recorded a decline in capital spending at varying rates, with rates ranging between 52.9 and 24.4 percent in the UAE, Lebanon and Morocco, Yemen, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia.
The report indicated that bank deposits in national currencies recorded an increase with banks in all Arab countries during 2021, with the exception of banks in Kuwait, Lebanon and Libya, Jordan, UAE, Tunisia, Algeria, Djibouti, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait and Mauritania.
With regard to the ratio of non-performing loans (non-performing loans) to total loans, this ratio witnessed a decline in most Arab countries in 2021, as it decreased in Jordan, the Emirates, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Egypt and Mauritania, and reached its lowest level with Saudi and Kuwaiti banks by 1.9 percent. It was followed by Qatari, Bahraini, and Egyptian, with 2.4, 3.2, and 3.6 percent, respectively.
The Arab Monetary Fund report stated that with regard to individual Arab countries, the group of Gulf states in 2021 recorded an increase in the value of official foreign reserves by about 3.4 percent, to reach $689.1 billion, compared to $666.7 billion registered during the previous year.
These reserves increased in Bahrain, Oman, the UAE, Qatar and Saudi Arabia by 110.5, 31.5, 12.7, 7.3 and 0.4 percent, respectively, during 2021, while they decreased in Kuwait by about 6.3 percent in the same year.
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