Economy (Kuwait)
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     Overview:
         Up to the invasion by Iraq in August 1990, the oil sector had dominated the
         economy. Kuwait has the third-largest oil reserves in the world after Saudi
         Arabia and Iraq. Earnings from hydrocarbons have generated over 90% of both
         export and government revenues and contributed about 40% to GDP. Most of the
         nonoil sector has traditionally been dependent upon oil-derived government
         revenues. Iraq's destruction of Kuwait's oil industry during the Gulf war
         has devastated the economy. Iraq destroyed or damaged more than 80% of
         Kuwait's 950 operating oil wells, as well as sabotaged key surface
         facilities. Firefighters brought all of the roughly 750 oil well fires and
         blowouts under control by November 1991. By yearend, production had been
         brought back to 400,000 barrels per day; it could take two to three years to
         restore Kuwait's oil production to its prewar level of about 2.0 million
         barrels per day. Meanwhile, population had been greatly reduced because of
         the war, from 2.1 million to 1.4 million.
     GDP:
         exchange rate conversion - $8.75 billion, per capita $6,200; real growth
         rate -50% (1991 est.)
     Inflation rate (consumer prices):
         NA
     Unemployment rate:
         NA
     Budget:
         revenues $7.1 billion; expenditures $10.5 billion, including capital
         expenditures of $3.1 billion (FY88)
     Exports:
         $11.4 billion (f.o.b., 1989)
       commodities:
         oil 90%
       partners:
         Japan 19%, Netherlands 9%, US 8%, Pakistan 6%
     Imports:
         $6.6 billion (f.o.b., 1989)
       commodities:
         food, construction materials, vehicles and parts, clothing
       partners:
         US 15%, Japan 12%, FRG 8%, UK 7%
     External debt:
         $7.2 billion (December 1989 est.)
     Industrial production:
         growth rate 3% (1988); accounts for 52% of GDP
     Electricity:
         3,100,000 kW available out of 8,290,000 kW capacity due to Persian Gulf war;
         7,300 million kWh produced, 3,311 kWh per capita (1991)
     Industries:
         petroleum, petrochemicals, desalination, food processing, building
         materials, salt, construction
     Agriculture:
         virtually none; dependent on imports for food; about 75% of potable water
         must be distilled or imported
     Economic aid:
         donor - pledged $18.3 billion in bilateral aid to less developed countries
         (1979-89)
     Currency:
         Kuwaiti dinar (plural - dinars); 1 Kuwaiti dinar (KD) = 1,000 fils
     Exchange rates:
         Kuwaiti dinars (KD) per US$1 - 0.2950 (March 1992), 0.2843 (1991), 0.2915
         (1990), 0.2937 (1989), 0.2790 (1988), 0.2786 (1987)