KUWAIT CITY, Nov 17: Official statistics obtained by the Al-Rai daily on the number of building permits issued during 2020 raises the alarm on the indicator of the economic crisis affecting various sectors, which predicts new risks for Kuwait’s ranking in international indicators.

Last February, the government was celebrating the progress of Kuwait’s ranking in the World Bank’s report for ease of doing business, especially the building permits index, which is now issued within two days, but official figures show that the number of building permits issued during this year is more than 50 percent less than in 2019 in various sectors.

The statistic shows that the number of building permits in private housing decreased by 46 percent, for investment housing by 65 percent, and the commercial sector by 61 percent, and the decline reached 57 percent for building permits for industrial use.

The economists have warned that the continued weakness of urban activity recorded in 2020 will increase the depth of financial pressures faced by companies in various sectors, stressing that this represents a true mirror of economic activity, and that the decline in new licenses reveals the extent of the deterioration of economic activities of all kinds.

They explained the construction sector is the head of the operational chain that moves dozens of other economic sectors that have come under the weight of stifling pressures that have pushed them to reduce their business and threaten them with bankruptcy due to the stagnation of the construction sector. They stressed that the government’s continuing attention to the reality of the crisis will deepen its effects and increase the cost of absorbing the shocks resulting from this decline.