KUWAIT CITY, March 19: Oil-rich Kuwait is set to post its largest budget surplus ever in fiscal 2004-5 on the back of high oil prices and a rise in production, official statistics show. Figures posted on the finance ministry’s website on Saturday show that total revenues in the first 11 months of the year reached eight billion dinars ($27.1bn), up on the $11.25 billion projected for the whole year. Actual oil revenues reached $25 billion, up 31 per cent on the corresponding period in 2003-4 of $19 billion and almost triple the budget projection for the whole current year of $9.27 billion. The government calculated oil income on the basis of an ultra-conservative price of $15 a barrel at a daily output of two million barrels. But Kuwaiti oil has actually fetched an average of more than $35 a barrel in the past 11 months and earlier this week it hit the highest level ever of $46.22 a barrel. The emirate is pumping at full capacity of 2.6 million barrels per day (bpd), some 500,000 bpd above its Opec quota. Oil income in February jumped to $2.6 billion, up 44 per cent on January. The month saw the third largest monthly income from oil after November and September.

March is expected to boast the largest oil revenues of the year because both the price and output increased considerably.

Accordingly, the emirate is tipped to finish the year with income of more than $30 billion, the highest ever.

Kuwait’s fiscal year runs from April 1 to March 31.—AFP