Kuwait issues $74 billion budget with deficit

Opec member Kuwait said on Wednesday it has issued the 2013/2014 budget, with spending projected at 21.0 billion dinars ($73.7 billion), slightly short of last year's record expenditure of 21.2 billion dinars. The budget, issued by the emir in a decree because parliament is dissolved, projects a deficit of 2.9 billion dinars ($10.2 billion), much smaller than last year's estimated shortfall of $26 billion, the finance ministry said.
Kuwait's fiscal year runs between April 1 and March 31. Kuwait has so far not released fiscal details of year to March 2013, but provisional figures show a huge surplus of around $38 billion. Kuwait, which says it sits on 10 percent of global crude reserves, has projected a budget deficit every year for the past 14 fiscal years but has ended up with a healthy surplus, accumulating close to $300 billion.