Kuwait: Current account balance (% of GDP)

Key figures

What the numbers say

In 2025, Kuwait's current account balance (% of GDP) fell 6.33 percentage points on 2024 (from 29.03% to 22.7%).

Across the 30 yearly changes before that (1995 to 2024), the average change was +0.53 percentage points and a typical year strayed about 10.39 percentage points from that (the standard deviation). This year's change was 0.7 standard deviations below that average, so it was an ordinary year: it sits within the range of normal year-to-year movement.

On record, the biggest yearly rise was 22.27 percentage points in 2000 and the biggest yearly fall was 31.67 percentage points in 1982. The numbers show how large and when, not why; for the cause, look at what happened in that country in those years.

From 2016 to 2025 the straight-line trend is upward, about 2.84 percentage points a year. A straight line explains 67% of the movement over 10 observed years.

Worked out from the yearly values above. How the checks work: standard deviation, z-scores and straight-line trends.

How it compares

In 2025, Kuwait had the 2nd highest value of the 135 economies reporting that year. Higher is not always better: for some indicators the lowest value is the one to aim for. See the full ranking.

Closest to Kuwait in the 2025 ranking

• Macao SAR, China — 1st of 135: 39.6%
• Brunei Darussalam — 3rd of 135: 18.01%
• Tajikistan — 4th of 135: 17.1%
• Singapore — 5th of 135: 16.71%

What this measures

Balance of current transactions (transactions in goods and services, earned income and transfer income) between residents and non-residents. The term current account balance is used in the external accounts and is expressed from the perspective of resident units. The term current external balance is used in the national accounts and is expressed from the perspective of the non-resident units, and therefore with the opposite sign. This indicator is expressed as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) which is the total income earned through the production of goods and services in an economic territory during an accounting period.

All 49 values

Current account balance (% of GDP) in nearby economies

• Afghanistan — -15.72% (2020)
• Algeria — -8.81% (2025)
• Bahrain — 5.76% (2025)
• Djibouti — 14.69% (2024)
• Egypt, Arab Rep. — -3.82% (2025)
• Iraq — 1.94% (2025)
• Israel — 2.02% (2025)
• Jordan — -5.33% (2024)
• Lebanon — -28.1% (2023)
• Libya — 4.24% (2023)
• Malta — 7.1% (2024)

More economic policy & debt data for Kuwait

• Total reserves, including gold (current US$) — US$51.74 billion (2025)
• Total reserves, excluding gold (current US$) — US$40.65 billion (2025)
• GDP (current US$) — US$157.21 billion (2025)
• GDP (current LCU) — 48.18 billion (2025)
• GDP per capita (current US$) — US$32,312 (2025)
• GDP per capita (current LCU) — 9,902 (2025)
• GNI (current US$) — US$193.99 billion (2024)
• GNI (current LCU) — 59.49 billion (2024)
• GNI per capita (current LCU) — 12,148 (2024)
• General government final consumption expenditure (current US$) — US$41.5 billion (2024)

Reading data like this

• Where to find free public data, and how to check it before you trust it — 2 min read
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Questions people ask

What is Kuwait's current account balance (% of GDP)?

22.7% in 2025, according to the World Bank (World Development Indicators).

How has it changed since 1975?

It is down 26.63 percentage points from 49.33% in 1975. The highest value was 56.7% in 1979 and the lowest -2.27% in 1992.

How does Kuwait rank?

2nd highest of 135 economies with data for 2025.

Is the latest change in current account balance (% of GDP) unusual for Kuwait?

In 2025, Kuwait's current account balance (% of GDP) fell 6.33 percentage points on 2024 (from 29.03% to 22.7%). Across the 30 yearly changes before that (1995 to 2024), the average change was +0.53 percentage points and a typical year strayed about 10.39 percentage points from that (the standard deviation). This year's change was 0.7 standard deviations below that average, so it was an ordinary year: it sits within the range of normal year-to-year movement.

Source

World Bank, World Development Indicators, indicator BN.CAB.XOKA.GD.ZS, licensed CC BY 4.0. Original source: Balance of Payments Statistics Yearbook and data files, International Monetary Fund (IMF); World Development Indicators Database, World Bank (WB); National Accounts data files, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Figures are fetched from the World Bank API and refreshed monthly; see the series on data.worldbank.org. The full definition and method are in the World Bank's metadata glossary. Comparisons use the same World Bank release.

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