Bahrain Mirror- Reuters: Kuwait's parliament approved a government budget for the current fiscal year to March 31 that projects a deficit of 7.89 billion dinars ($26 billion), after a transfer to the sovereign wealth fund, the official KUNA news agency said on Thursday.

Spending is projected at 19.90 billion dinars and revenues at 13.34 billion dinars, of which 10 percent or 1.33 billion dinars would be given to the wealth fund.

The deficit would be covered by the state's "general financial reserves", KUNA reported without elaborating.

The budget, based on an oil price of $45 per barrel, assumes a 30 percent increase in revenues from last fiscal year. Oil income is projected at 11.7 billion dinars and non-oil revenues at 1.6 billion revenues, KUNA quoted Finance Minister Anas al-Saleh as saying.

Arabic Version