A senior Finance Ministry official on Wednesday expected the hypothetical price for Kuwaiti crude oil in the next State budget, 2015-2016, to be around USD 55-60 pb, compared to USD 75 pb in the current budget that ends on 31 March 2015.
A general framework committee chaired by Minister of Finance Anas Khaled Al-Saleh, has not yet given a final word on the hypothetical crude price, ministry Undersecretary Khalifa Hamada told the Fourth Conference of the Kuwait Association of Accountants and Auditors (KWAAA) today.
Yet, he expects the committee to convene over two weeks to set the price amid the accelerating changes on the world's oil markets.
He attributed expectations of a lower hypothetical price to the conservative policy adopted by the committee, in light of the fact that 90 percent of the budget revenues depends on income from oil.
Commenting on the present USD 75 hypothetical price, Hamad said it is "exaggerated", considering the fall of the Kuwaiti crude oil to less than USD 65 pb. He said the following budget will be less than the present one.
Hamada urged the government to take "pre-emptive steps" to rationalize official expenditure over the coming four months.