Budget Policies During and After the Oil Crisis of 2014: Comparative Analysis of Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Kuwait

Abstract

This paper explored how some Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries employed budget policies to manage their budget deficits in the fiscal years between 2014 and 2018. Empirically, this study attempted to summarize and critically analyze several approaches of economic strategies that countries utilized such as sovereign wealth fund, revenue-increasing policies, and expenditure-reducing policies in response to budget deficits during and after the oil crisis of 2014. Secondary data were gathered from the ministry of finance reports as well as various official documents covering three different GCC countries, which are Saudi Arabia, UAE and Kuwait. The findings of this study showed distinct patterns in a three-country approach to manage their budget deficits. Saudi Arabia and UAE implemented a comparatively more balanced approach between increasing revenues and reducing expenditure. On the other hand, Kuwait focused on reducing their budget expenditures and adopted policies that promoted across the board cuts and is relatively relying more on oil revenues to balance the budget.