billion
expenditures: $14.5 billion, including capital expenditures of $NA
(FY98/99 budget est.)

Industries: petroleum, petrochemicals, desalination, food
processing, construction materials, salt, construction

Industrial production growth rate: 1% (1997 est.)

Electricity--production: 23 billion kWh (1996)

Electricity--production by source:
fossil fuel: 100%
hydro: 0%
nuclear: 0%
other: 0% (1996)

Electricity--consumption: 23 billion kWh (1996)

Electricity--exports: 0 kWh (1996)

Electricity--imports: 0 kWh (1996)

Agriculture--products: practically no crops; fish

Exports: $14.3 billion (f.o.b., 1997)

Exports--commodities: oil and refined products, fertilizers

Exports--partners: Japan 24%, India 16%, US 13%, South Korea 11%,
Singapore 8% (1997)

Imports: $7.8 billion (f.o.b., 1996)

Imports--commodities: food, construction materials, vehicles and
parts, clothing

Imports--partners: US 22%, Japan 15%, UK 13%, Germany 8%, Italy 6%
(1997)

Debt--external: $7.3 billion (1997 est.)

Economic aid--recipient: $27.6 million (1995)

Currency: 1 Kuwaiti dinar (KD) = 1,000 fils

Exchange rates: Kuwaiti dinars (KD) per US$1--0.3018 (January
1999), 0.3047 (1998), 0.3033 (1997), 0.2994 (1996), 0.2984 (1995),
0.2976 (1994)

Fiscal year: 1 July--30 June

Communications

Telephones: 408,000 (1998)

Telephone system: the civil network suffered some damage as a
result of the Gulf war, but most of the telephone exchanges were
left intact and, by the end of 1994, domestic and international
telecommunications had been restored to normal operation; the
quality of service is excellent
domestic: new telephone exchanges provide a large capacity for new
subscribers; trunk traffic is carried by microwave radio relay,
coaxial cable, open wire and fiber-optic cable; a cellular telephone
system operates throughout Kuwait (with approximately 150,000
subscribers in 1996) and the country is well supplied with pay
telephones; approximately 15,000 Internet subscribers in 1996
international: coaxial cable and microwave radio relay to Saudi
Arabia; satellite earth stations--3 Intelsat (1 Atlantic Ocean, 2
Indian Ocean), 1 Inmarsat (Atlantic Ocean), and 1 Arabsat

Radio broadcast stations: AM 3, FM 0, shortwave 0

Radios: 720,000 (1992 est.)

Television broadcast stations: 13 (in addition, there are several
satellite channels) (1997)

Televisions: 800,