Kuwait income hit by oil price plunge

Opec member Kuwait earned 1.255 billion dinars (4.65 billion dollars) in November, its lowest monthly income this year due to the sharp decline in oil prices, the finance ministry said on Sunday.
The oil-rich emirate's revenues have been declining since peaking at 12.9 billion dollars in August as the price of Kuwaiti oil, which makes up 95 percent of public income, dived to 35 dollars a barrel from around 140 in July.
Nevertheless, the Gulf state still posted a healthy income of 17.7 billion dinars (64.4 billion dollars) in the first eight months of the 2008/2009 fiscal year, up 40 percent on the budget target for the year ending on March 31.
Oil revenues came in at 16.8 billion dinars (61.2 billion dollars), 44 percent above budget projections of 42.4 billion dollars based on a price of 50 dollars a barrel.
Kuwait, which says it sits on 10 percent of global oil reserves, was pumping about 2.6 million barrels per day but recent Opec cuts have reduced its output quota to around 2.2 million barrels per day.
Spending in the first eight months was 7.9 billion dinars (28.7 billion dollars), less than half of the 18.966 billion dinars (69 billion dollars) in budget outlays forecast for the entire year.