Key View: Kuwait outperforms in our Autos Sales Risk/Reward Index for the region and mirrors other wealthy Middle East and North Africa countries in terms of low tax rates and small, wealthy populations. However, its restrictive regulatory environment and unfavourable competitive landscape prevent it from climbing the regional ranks.

Key View

• The Covid-19 outbreak and recent collapse in oil prices will present headwinds to the Kuwaiti economy, spurring a modest increase in the country's unemployment in 2020.
• That said, we do not expect higher unemployment to have a significant impact on social stability. In large part, this is because job shedding is likely to affect

Key View

• We at Fitch Solutions see the Kuwaiti economy entering a recession in 2020, forecasting growth to come in at -5.3% in 2020.
• Our bearish outlook is underpinned by the recent OPEC+ production cuts as well as Covid-19-related disruptions to non-oil activity.
• That said, we expect growth to pick up in 2021 on the back of a gradual

Challenged by a strict regulatory framework and low levels of liquidity, Kuwait’s stock exchange has struggled to attract new listings at a time when some of its rival bourses in the MENA and GCC regions have been recording bumper deals. The last decade has seen the number of listed companies on the local Boursa Kuwait decline, rather than grow

Key View

• We at Fitch Solutions forecast Kuwaiti growth to come in at 2.9% in 2020, marking a substantial acceleration from the 2018 growth rate of 1.2% and our 2019 forecast of 1.1%.
• Manufacturing will be the main driver of headline growth, driven by added capacity at the Mina Al Ahmadi and the Mina Abdullah oil refineries.
• That said, OPEC

Key View

• We at Fitch Solutions project Kuwait’s current account surplus to widen from 15.0% of GDP in 2018 and 10.5% in 2019 to 12.3% in 2020.
• Our forecast is underpinned by our expectation that, while OPEC-led production cuts will be maintained until end-2020, a surge in refined products production will provide a temporary boost to the value

Key View

• 5G services are now being offered to Kuwaiti consumer and enterprise customers, with the initial emphasis being on home and office broadband, giving us a clear indication of how 5G uptake will play out over the next decade.
• The wireline market is closed to competition, so the digital transformation of the business segment will rely