In its monthly report on the performance of Gulf stock markets for the month of February 2023, Kuwait Financial Center Company “Marcus” said that the Kuwaiti market saw a slight decline in the month with a loss of 0.5 percent.

In the past month, the insurance sector indices gained 4.8 percent, the consumer services sector gained 3.8 percent and the oil and gas sector lost 7.3 percent, the report indicated.

He pointed out that among the first market companies, shares of “Human Soft” and “Jazeera Airways” achieved the highest gains of 8.5 and 7.4 percent respectively this month.

Kuwait has estimated the deficit in the 2023-2024 fiscal year budget at 6.8 billion dinars, excluding income from investments and government institutions, compared to an estimate of 123.9 million dinars, a huge increase in the deficit. Budget for the financial year 2022-2023.

He expected oil revenues to be lower than the previous budget, based on expectations that average oil prices will reach $70 a barrel in the 2022-2023 fiscal year, up from the estimated $80.

While budget allocations for energy subsidies and salaries have increased by 34.2 and 13.3 percent year-on-year respectively, capital expenditure has declined by 15.2 percent as the current budget includes recurrent expenditure and accumulated arrears from previous years. Ministry of Power and Water.

This comes at a time when Fitch expects Kuwait’s GDP to grow by 2.7 percent in 2023, with an inflation rate of 3 percent in 2023, thanks to the stability of oil prices, while Moody’s maintains a stable outlook for Bank of Kuwait. Citing strong economic growth, moderate inflation and strong fiscal performance, the Kuwaiti government has allocated approximately KD 837 million to implement 110 planned projects in the 2023/24 fiscal year, with an “A1” rating.

Gulf Retreat

Regionally, the Standard & Poor’s GCC composite index fell 4.3 percent, while the general index of the Saudi market and Qatar market fell 6.4 percent and 3.3 percent, respectively, in February, Marcus said in its report. Against the backdrop of a slump in oil prices, the index of the Dubai market and the Abu Dhabi market gained 4.1 and 0.3 percent respectively, supported by good results achieved by leading companies in the two markets.

negative performance

The performance of developed markets was negative in February as the “Morgan Stanley Capital Intelligence” global index fell 2.5 percent and the “Standard & Poor’s 500” index fell 2.6 percent, Markus’ report noted.

He revealed that global markets were affected by rising inflationary pressures and the possibility of the US Federal Reserve taking a more dovish stance on raising interest rates, with the final interest rate reaching a target range of 5.5 to 5.75 percent.