KPMG Kuwait CEO Outlook

CEOs in Kuwait are looking past recent economic slowdowns and are winding up to catapult organizational growth in the three-year horizon (2022–2025). 

The KPMG Kuwait CEO Outlook 2022–23 report draws on the perspectives of 1325 global CEOs, including 25 from Kuwait, to provide a detailed overview of their outlook on Kuwait’s economic landscape and insight into their near- and long-term plans. Titled Turning the tide, this is the second edition of the KPMG Kuwait CEO Outlook, which was first published in 2021.

The KPMG Kuwait CEO Outlook 2022–23 focuses on four primary themes: (i) economic outlook; (ii) technology; (iii) talent; and (iv) ESG (environment, social and governance). Over the course of 2022–23, we witnessed cross-level shifts in Kuwait — a lot of which weren’t synonymous with the global trends. For instance, the findings indicate that more than 70% of the surveyed CEOs think a recession is unlikely to hit Kuwait in the near future. However, they are not undermining the fact that a potential event would in fact affect their earnings and slow down post-pandemic recovery.

To identify whether or not our survey findings were aligned with their business strategies, we interviewed five CEOs from Kuwait. They were:

•       Mr. Raed Jawad Bukhamseen, Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, KIB;

•       Eng. Maziad Alharbi, Chief Executive Officer, stc;

•       Mr. Ali H. Khalil, Chief Executive Officer, Markaz;

•       Mr. S.N. Ramachandran, Group Chief Financial Officer, Fouad Alghanim Group; and

•       Mr. Mazen Hawwa, Vice Chairman and Group Chief Executive Officer, United Real Estate Co.

Our goal through this report is to support CEOs decisions in light of the shifts occuring in Kuwait's economic landscape.