KUWAIT CITY: The Central Bank of Kuwait (CBK) published today the preliminary data of the Balance of Payments (BOP) of the State of Kuwait for the fourth quarter of 2017 and the revised data of the third quarter of the same year.
The aforesaid data shows that the Current Account (summing up receipts and payments between domestic economy and other economies in terms of goods, services and income) recorded a surplus of KD 1,108 million against a surplus of KD 488 million during the comparative period, representing a hike of KD 620 million or 127.1%.
The upturn in the current account surplus is due to the appreciation in the surplus of balance on goods and the depreciation in the surplus of primary income on one hand, and the contraction in the services account deficit and the increase in the secondary income deficit on the other.
The surplus in the current account mainly refl ects a surge in the value of oil exports at a greater rate than that of value of merchandise imports resulting in increasing surplus of the balance on goods (merchandise exports minus merchandise imports) to KD 2,291 million during the last quarter of 2017 as compared to KD 1,748 million during the previous quarter.
Furthermore, deficit in the Services Account (net value of services transactions between residents and non residents, the most important of which are transportation, travel, communications and construction) fell by KD 348 million or 17.9% to KD 1,596 million during the fourth quarter of 2017, compared to a defi- cit of KD 1,944 million during the previous quarter.
