KUWAIT: Kuwait’s exports fell by 37.6 percent to KD 3.5 billion in the fourth quarter of 2015, compared with the same period of the previous year, the Central Statistical Bureau said yesterday. Kuwait’s imports, comparatively, amounted to KD 2.4 billion in the period from October to December 2015, up 7.7 percent over the same period of 2014, the bureau added.
Trade balance made a surplus of KD 1.04 billion in the fourth quarter of 2015, compared with KD 3.3 billion in the same period of 2014, down 68.7 percent, it added. In October-December 2015, the main partner country for non-oil exports was Saudi Arabia with KD 60.4 million. For exports, Saudi Arabia was followed by India with KD 60 million and UAE with KD 58 million, it said.
The top country for Kuwait’s imports was China (KD 374 million), records for imports range from UAE (KD 223.3 million), the US (KD 214.6 million), and Japan (KD 204.1 million), it added. As compared with the same quarter of the previous year, exports to the GCC countries were KD 152.3 million, increased by 16.8 percent.
The share of the GCC countries was 4.3 percent in October-December 2015, while it was also 2.3 percent in October- December 2014, the bureau noted.
During the same period, 24.2 percent of imports products were industrial supplies. As compared with the same period of the previous year, industrial supplies decreased 1.6 percent. Food and beverages, capital goods and transport equipment and parts and accessories thereof increased by 20.2 percent, 4.2 percent and 2.9 percent respectively, it added. —KUNA
