After making the decision at its weekly meeting on 17 September, the cabinet instructed the finance ministry to make the necessary arrangements to implement the change in fiscal 2012-13 which started on 1 April.

Explaining the rationale behind this decision, Kuwait’s Finance Minister Nayif al-Hajraf told the official Kuwaiti news agency KUNA the next day that the country would not cut down on spending as a result of allocating a greater share of its revenues to the rainy day fund. He added that the move was aimed at encouraging savings and that the plan would not distract the government from dealing with economic problems. (CONTINUED - 362 WORDS)