Kuwait- The Central Bank of Kuwait announced that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission to Kuwait expected a gradual revival in Kuwaiti non-oil sectors GDP up to 3.5% in the upcoming year and 4% in later years.

The mission, in its concluding statement, also expected the investment in infrastructure to push the economic growth in the medium term.

The Governor of the Central Bank of Kuwait (CBK) Dr. Mohammad Yousef Al-Hashel said that the statement included three themes: fiscal developments in Kuwait, fiscal forecasts and the risks facing these forecasts.

In the aspect of fiscal developments, Hashel said that the economic activity continued to expand in non-oil sectors even if at a slow pace—this actually reflects the effect of the drop in oil prices in which the growth average of non-oil sectors GDP reached around 3.5% compared to 5% in 2014.

According to Hashel, the mission pointed in its statement the solidity of the financial and banking sector and the adequacy of credit conditions in which banks’ capitalization reached a high average up to 17.9% as well as high profitability averages.

Furthermore, the rate of irregular loans dropped around 2.4% while the banking liquidity enhanced supported by the increase of governmental deposits. The statement also noted that credit facilities granted to the private sector witnessed a remarkable development.

Hashel said that the mission’s statement reported that “the drop of oil revenues led to a huge financial deficit in the public budget of the fiscal year 2015-2016, exceeding 17% of the GDP.