Kuwait’s $700bn fund says global markets will ‘go down further’ By Reuters June 21, 2022, 3:17 PM Creative Commons Kuwait’s central bank approved the merger on Wednesday, further evidence of an ongoing trend for bank mergers in the Gulf Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA) is waiting for a further expected decline in global markets before deploying investments and believes that will be before the end of the year, Managing Director Ghanem Al-Ghenaiman said on Tuesday. Ghenaiman, speaking at the Qatar Economic Forum organised by Bloomberg, said he believes markets will “go down further from here”. The KIA sovereign wealth fund has more than $700 billion in assets, according to the Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute. It manages two funds — one is a nest egg for when oil prices run out, the other is used to cover Kuwait’s budget deficit.