Kuwaitis spent 3.53 billion dinars on travel in the first nine months of this year.

Kuwait, Dec. 21: Kuwaiti travel expenditure surged by 13.92 percent in Q3 compared to Q2 this year, climbing from 1.016 billion dinars to 1.157 billion dinars. Over the nine-month period, Kuwaitis spent approximately 3.534 billion dinars on travel, marking a 13.65 percent increase from the 3.112 billion dinars spent during the corresponding period in 2022. This data is derived from the Central Bank of Kuwait’s balance of payments report.

In the third quarter of this year, remittances from expatriates abroad totaled 867.7 million dinars, marking a decrease of approximately 2.74 percent from the 892.1 million dinars recorded in the second quarter. Additionally, compared to the third quarter of the previous year, there was a significant decline of about 31.46 percent, with remittances amounting to 1.266 billion dinars during that period.

Allowance:

During the nine-month period from January to September this year, expatriate remittances totaled approximately 2.98 billion dinars, representing a significant decrease of about 29.67 percent compared to the 4.24 billion dinars recorded in the first nine months of last year.

The data also indicates that the current account, which presents the summary of financial transactions involving goods, services, and income between the local economy and other economies, attained a surplus of around 4.72 billion dinars in the third quarter of this year. This surplus contributed to the overall surplus for the first nine months of this year, which reached about 12.22 billion dinars.

The current account surplus in the third quarter of 2023 saw a decrease of approximately 11.2 percent compared to the same quarter of the previous year, reaching 5.32 billion dinars. Moreover, in the first nine months of this year, the current account surplus declined by about 16.6 percent from the corresponding period in 2022, totaling around 14.66 billion dinars.

Regarding merchandise exports, in the third quarter of 2023, the value stood at about 6.77 billion dinars, marking a decrease of approximately 16.9 percent from the 8.15 billion dinars recorded in the second quarter of this year. Over the period from January to September of the current year, the value of merchandise exports amounted to 19.52 billion dinars, indicating an 18.6 percent decrease from the 23.98 billion dinars observed in the same period last year.