Kuwait awarded projects worth KD 10 billion in 2015, a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 84 percent compared to 2013, said the Head of Research at Kuwait Financial Centre, "Markaz", M.R. Raghu, on Sunday.

The Kuwait News Agency, KUNA, quoted Raghu as saying that the rise in projects is "an indicator of a strong sign of growth", in a lecture organized by Kuwait Economic Society (KES) on the impact of 2014-15 state procurement on the Kuwaiti financial sector. He noted that the aggregate value of projects awarded during 2014 and 2015 was KD 18 billion.

He said the decline in oil prices had not significantly affected the projects' landscape in Kuwait, indicating that big spending of government has not so far impacted economic fields.

The real estate sector is the most dominant segment for projects in Kuwait, as it has some 154 projects with a value of KD 37 billion, while 50 percent of projects signed in 2015 belong to the oil and gas sector, he said.

He went on to say that there were 420 ongoing projects in Kuwait in the first quarter of 2016, 19 of them, valued at KD 34 billion (US$ 112.2 billion), were placed on hold and another 20 projects estimated at KD 7 billion were shelved.

Most ongoing projects are in the early stages of execution, and projects in the oil, gas, power and water sectors accounted for 74 percent of projects completed (by value) between 2012 and 2015.

Raghu stressed that the awarding of projects is yet to create any impact on capital markets and had a marginal impact in banks' credit growth. The Kuwait Authority for Partnership Projects (KAPP) would award public-private partnership (PPP) projects worth KD 2 billion in 2016, he expected.

Source:WAM