KUWAIT CITY, Oct 16: According to data issued by the Central Bank of Kuwait (CBK), the total installment loans reached a level of 13.64 billion dinars, which is the highest during the past decade, reports Al-Anba daily. Old buildings target

Kuwaitis in August alone (without taking into account the loans granted by the Kuwait Credit Bank) obtained about 196 million dinars, with a daily average of 6.3 million dinars per day.

The daily added, these are long-term personal loans that the customer uses for non-commercial purposes, in particular to purchase or renovate private housing, and are repaid in monthly installments within a period not exceeding 15 years.

Beginning

Since the beginning of this year, the value of housing loans obtained by citizens from commercial banks has reached one billion dinars, about 936 million dinars during the first 8 months of this year.

It is worth mentioning the Kuwait Credit Bank grants citizens a loan of 70,000 dinars to buy, build or renovate their own houses, but the value of this loan may be insufficient for many citizens to build a new house, and therefore they resort to commercial banks to obtain an additional housing loan which is given in instalments, in order to complete the construction of the house.

‘Oil hike temporary’:

First Vice President of the Kuwait Chamber of Commerce and Industry Abdulwahab Al-Wazzan stressed on the need to work on diversifying sources of income in Kuwait sooner rather than later, and not to rely too much on the current rise in oil prices, especially since the current rise may not last long, reports Al-Anba daily.

In an exclusive statement to Al-Anba, Al-Wazzan added, the rise in oil prices should not lead to a halt or delay in the procedures for financial and economic reforms in the oil-producing countries in general and Kuwait in particular, especially since Kuwait suffers from a large liquidity deficit that prompted it to think of withdrawing from the Future Generations Fund.

He went on to say, “Do not be deceived by the temporary rise in oil prices. “We should not be swayed by the current rise, so we postpone solutions and alternatives. The rise in oil prices has its political and technical justifications, and therefore once these reasons are eliminated, prices may fall to levels of $60 by the end of this year or the beginning of next year.”