Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA), the Gulf state sovereign wealth fund, on Tuesday denied a United Nations claim its assets slumped by 94 billion dollars due to the global financial crisis. KIA acting managing director Othman Ibrahim al-Issa said in a statement cited by the official KUNA news agency that the authority has asked the UN agency which reported the losses to rectify the mistake.
The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said in its World Investment Report 2009, released last week, that Kuwait sovereign fund assets shrank by 94 billion dollars last year due to the economic meltdown. The report also said that four Gulf sovereign wealth funds, including Kuwait, lost a total of 350 billion dollars last year. "KIA has sent a letter to UNCTAD secretary general on Sunday asking him to rectify the gross mistake it committed in saying Kuwaiti assets slumped by 94 billion dollars," Issa said.
KIA asked the UN organisation to amend the figures in the report by publishing the correct figures, said Issa without providing figures for the losses incurred by the Kuwaiti sovereign fund or its current assets.
Kuwaiti MPs said in February that KIA officials told a secret parliament session that the value of Kuwaiti investments abroad dropped by around 31 billion dollars last year due to the global economic crisis. The MPs also said that questions were raised during the session about the small size of the reported loss and decided to ask the state Audit Bureau to ascertain that the figure was correct. KIA does not disclose its holdings but independent economic reports estimate the Kuwaiti assets at between 200 billion dollars and 230 billion dollars, down from around 300 billion dollars in March last year.