Kuwait policy interest rate
The Discount Rate is the Central Bank of Kuwait's headline policy rate — the ceiling rate at which CBK lends to local banks — set by the CBK Board of Directors under Law No. 32 of 1968 concerning Currency, the Central Bank of Kuwait and the Organisation of Banking Business. CBK announces changes by press release and publishes the standing level on its Main Indicators page alongside its intervention rates (overnight, 1-week and 1-month repo). Unlike the rest of the GCC, Kuwait does NOT run a US-dollar peg: the Kuwaiti dinar is pegged to an undisclosed weighted basket of currencies, so CBK sets the Discount Rate with some latitude and does not automatically mirror the Federal Reserve.
| Current value | 3.5 percent |
|---|---|
| In force from | 2025-12-11 |
| Official source | Central Bank of Kuwait press release, 10 Dec 2025 — 'CBK Cuts the discount rate by 25 basis points to 3.50%', effective Thursday 11 December 2025; level re-confirmed on CBK's Main Indicators page ('Last change on rates as of: 11/12/2025') |
| Last verified | 2026-07-24 |
| Verification | primary — No verification limitation recorded — read from the official source cited. |
| Provenance | source fingerprint |
What this value means
Served value is the CBK DISCOUNT RATE = 3.50%, cut 25bps from 3.75% by decision of the CBK Board announced 10 Dec 2025 and EFFECTIVE 11 Dec 2025 (CBK states the effective date explicitly — unlike QCB/SAMA, which announce levels without one). CBK's own Main Indicators page (https://www.cbk.gov.kw/en/monetary-policy/market-operations/main-indicators) confirmed on 23 Jul 2026 that the discount rate is 3.50% p.a. and that the LAST CHANGE TO RATES WAS 11/12/2025 — i.e. CBK has made NO rate change in 2026 to date; its 2026 press-release list contains no rate decision. DO NOT confuse the Discount Rate with CBK's intervention rates published on the same page, which are lower and move separately: ON-REPO 3.125%, 1W-REPO 3.375%, 1M-REPO 3.625% (and a separate 'ON-RATE' of 10.0%, a penalty/last-resort rate, not a policy stance). Market rates KIBOR (overnight 2.6250% to 12-month 4.0000%) and KONIA (2.840% on 22 Jul 2026) are indices, not policy instruments. PEG STRUCTURE — the reason this series is not a Fed mirror: since 20 May 2007 the KWD has been pegged to an UNDISCLOSED weighted basket of international currencies of Kuwait's main trade and financial partners (CBK Exchange Rate Policy, https://www.cbk.gov.kw/en/monetary-policy/exchange-rate-policy). Kuwait ran a disclosed basket from 18 Mar 1975 to end-2002, a hard USD peg at 299.63 fils/USD (+/-3.5%) from Jan 2003, and re-pegged to the undisclosed basket in May 2007 to blunt imported inflation from dollar depreciation. CBK does not publish the weights. The basket is USD-dominated in practice, so CBK usually follows Fed direction, but it is not obliged to and has diverged in timing and size before — treat Fed moves as a signal, not a rule. CBK's Dec 2025 statement justified the cut on domestic grounds (stimulating activity, disinflation from 3.00% in Jul 2024 to 2.39% in Jul 2025 as cited in the Sep 2025 release, and 'sustained relative stability of the KWD exchange rate against major currencies'). Next update: CBK publishes no meeting calendar — decisions arrive as unscheduled press releases, so watch the press-release list and the Main Indicators 'last change' stamp.
Earlier values
| From | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 2018-01-01 | 2.75 | Bank for International Settlements - Central Bank Policy Rat |
| 2018-03-22 | 3 | Bank for International Settlements - Central Bank Policy Rat |
| 2019-10-30 | 2.75 | Bank for International Settlements - Central Bank Policy Rat |
| 2020-03-04 | 2.5 | Bank for International Settlements - Central Bank Policy Rat |
| 2020-03-17 | 1.5 | Bank for International Settlements - Central Bank Policy Rat |
| 2022-03-17 | 1.75 | Bank for International Settlements - Central Bank Policy Rat |
| 2022-05-05 | 2 | Bank for International Settlements - Central Bank Policy Rat |
| 2022-06-16 | 2.25 | Bank for International Settlements - Central Bank Policy Rat |
| 2022-07-28 | 2.5 | Bank for International Settlements - Central Bank Policy Rat |
| 2022-08-11 | 2.75 | Bank for International Settlements - Central Bank Policy Rat |
| 2022-09-22 | 3 | Bank for International Settlements - Central Bank Policy Rat |
| 2022-12-07 | 3.5 | Bank for International Settlements - Central Bank Policy Rat |
Get it programmatically
curl https://asiaref.dev/v1/kw/policy-rate
# $0.001 per call — x402 on Base (USDC). No key, no signup.
# History: curl https://asiaref.dev/v1/kw/policy-rate/history?from=2020-01-01
# Provenance: curl https://asiaref.dev/provenance/kw/policy-rateOther Kuwait series: VAT rate · minimum wage · public holidays · inflation rate (CPI) · corporate tax rate · income tax rates