ABSTRACT
The annual growth of the Kuwaiti economy between 1965/1966 and 1972/1973 averaged 9 percent. The dependence of the overall Kuwaiti economy on the export of crude oil remains heavy despite massive programs of diversification and expansion in nonoil sectors. The Kuwaiti government has shown a strong willingness to help finance certain types of economic activity through loans or equity participation but to date has shown a strong resistance to outright subsidization of any concern. The well-being of the sector relies upon the anticipated continuation of high oil revenues and eventually on the degree of government success at diversification and expansion of the economic base away from crude oil production. To understand the new five-year social and economic development plan it is first necessary to review the central goals of the first five-year plan which was begun in fiscal year 1967/1968 and concluded in 1971/1972.
