Public sector salaries jumped by KD 4 billion in 10 years

The total salaries paid to workers in the public sector included in the Kuwaiti budget witnessed a jump of 4 billion dinars during the past 10 years. During the period between the fiscal year 2010/2009 and the fiscal year 2019/2018, salaries paid increased from KD 3.2 billion to KD 7.2 billion, Al Anbaa reported.

Growth rate with a compound annual rate of 9.5% brought the total salaries paid to ministries and government departments during the past 10 years to about KD. 52 billion.

As per the research and analysis of the Daily on the consumption spending of citizens and residents in Kuwait and abroad during the past 10 years (between 2010 and 2020),  the two main drivers of consumer spending for citizens and residents inside and outside Kuwait is high salaries and convenient facilities provided by Kuwaiti banks.

As per data, the spending of citizens and residents during the past 10 years amounted to about KD 88 billion in Kuwait and abroad.

The data also indicate that the personal facilities provided by Kuwaiti banks have witnessed strong growth during the past 10 years, as their balance reached by the end of November 2020 about 17.2 billion dinars.

Composite during the past 10 years amounted to 7% or equivalent to a total increase of 8.7 billion dinars, compared to 8.5 billion dinars at the end of 2010.

As for consumer loans, which constitute 85% of personal loans and are the main catalyst for consumption in addition to salaries, they recorded a compound annual growth rate of 9.8% over 10 years, by the end of November 2020, about KD 14.6 billion.

The value of POS devices transactions inside Kuwait during the past 10 years constituted about 92% of the total value of POS devices operations, equivalent to 80.63 billion dinars, while the remaining percentage of transactions were outside Kuwait as a result of spending on shopping and hotel reservations during travel trips amounted to KD 7.32 billion during the same period.

After a period of 5 years of remarkable growth in POS transactions, from 2011 to 2015, as a result of the good economic conditions and the strong growth in consumer loans and government salaries during that period, consumer spending began to slow in 2016 to record 5.9%.

Consequently, the growth of the value of POS transactions in Kuwait and abroad slowed in 2016 to 5.6%, to record 9.12 billion dinars during the year, as a result of the difficult economic conditions after the drop in oil prices by more than 50%, as well as the strictness in granting consumer loans and checking how they are disbursed. This led to a slowdown in the growth of total personal facilities from 12% in 2015 to 3.4% in 2016, while consumer loans decreased by 3.93% during 2016 from a negative growth of 0.32% in 2015.

After that, the growth rate in POS transactions returned to their high rates in 2017 and 2018, with a growth rate of 10% and 14.3%, respectively, to record their highest historical levels in 2018 at 11.48 billion dinars.

As for the year 2019, the transactions of point of sale devices in Kuwait and abroad witnessed the first annual decline in 11 years of 5.9%, while the Corona pandemic in 2020 had negative repercussions on POS transactions, which decreased by 15% to record KD 9.17 billion.