The man in charge of helping Kuwait navigate the global oil-price shock said the Middle East’s second-richest nation is responding to the crisis by “spending as much as possible” to bolster economic growth. Anas Al-Saleh, Kuwait’s deputy premier, said that the government isn’t canceling any projects. At the same time, authorities are cutting wasteful spending to plug a budget deficit that could exceed 13 percent of gross domestic product in 2016, according to International Monetary Fund estimates. Al-Saleh, the minister of finance and the country’s acting oil chief, is pushing a plan to reduce Kuwait’s reliance on oil, a challenge shared by major crude exporters from Saudi Arabia to Nigeria. The measures include reducing utility subsidies, introducing corporate taxes, merging state entities to downsize the government and tapping local and international debt markets. “We are determined to go forward and spend as much as possible on our economy and […]