Imports - partners: US 22%, Japan 15%, UK 13%, Germany 8%, Italy 6% (1997)
Debt - external: $9.27 billion (1998 est.)
Economic aid - recipient: $27.6 million (1995)
Currency: 1 Kuwaiti dinar (KD) = 1,000 fils
Exchange rates: Kuwaiti dinars (KD) per US$1 - 0.3042 (January 2000), 0.3044 (1999), 0.3047 (1998), 0.3033 (1997), 0.2994 (1996), 0.2984 (1995)
Fiscal year: 1 July - 30 June
@Kuwait:Communications
Telephones - main lines in use: 411,600 (1997)
Telephones - mobile cellular: 150,000 (1996)
Telephone system: the civil network suffered some damage as a result of the Gulf war, but most of the telephone exchanges were left intact and, by the end of 1994, domestic and international telecommunications had been restored to normal operation; the quality of service is excellent domestic: new telephone exchanges provide a large capacity for new subscribers; trunk traffic is carried by microwave radio relay, coaxial cable, open wire and fiber-optic cable; a cellular telephone system operates throughout Kuwait, and the country is well supplied with pay telephones; approximately 15,000 Internet subscribers in 1996 international: coaxial cable and microwave radio relay to Saudi Arabia; linked to Bahrain, Qatar, UAE via the Fiber-Optic Gulf (FOG) cable; satellite earth stations - 3 Intelsat (1 Atlantic Ocean, 2 Indian Ocean), 1 Inmarsat (Atlantic Ocean), and 2 Arabsat