| Kippreport.com

To bail out Kuwaitis, or not?

November 18, 2009 2:04 by Tania Tabar

The total amount of consumer and personal loans is KD6.7 billion ($23.5 billion), including KD1.6 billion ($5.6 billion) of interest.

The recent problem of debts in Kuwait was a result of a number of errors, including the banks’ ill-fated practice of granting loans without considering the volume of their transactions, or looking into customers’ credit histories.

Abbas al-Mejran, the director of the energy and environment at Kuwait University’s economics department told The National that the government’s history of financial support has created a borrowing culture in Kuwait. This brings into question the proposed solution of bailing out debtors. Will bailing out Kuwaitis aggravate Kuwaitis lack of accountability? In other words, would it be a waste of public money to pay off their debts?

Issa al-Quisi, the chairman of the economics department at Kuwait University, told said the government is doing the right thing by not caving into the MPs’ demands to cancel the debt or buy it and reschedule the payments.

“We should build new hospitals, new schools, new roads and new power stations. We shouldn’t just give the money to consumers who will go and borrow money again,” he said. “This is the money of the next generation.”

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Tags: debt relief, government, Kuwait, Labor