States across the world’s biggest oil-exporting region accumulated massive surpluses as oil prices went up in recent years.
But crude prices slumped to the mid-$30 a barrel range earlier in 2009, drastically reducing potential Gulf state revenues for this year and encouraging most of the states to pursue deficit spending to support their economies through a global downturn.
Kuwait’s oil revenue in the fourth quarter of 2008 dropped 51.7% from the preceding quarter to KWD3.67 billion, the data showed.
